Keep Holding On
by PenguinsOfMadagascar
Summary: This is a sequel to my story Skipper's Secret. Alex receives a note that changes her life, and someone from Julien's past comes back to him with awful news. Hurt/Comfort/Tragedy. Rated T. Read and review! Complete!
1. The Letter

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I actually bring in quite a few own characters in this story, but so far I only own Alex and her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance).**

**Note: This chapter starts in Alex's POV and then switches in Kowalski's POV half way through. A few chapters do that, but not a lot so it shouldn't get too confusing :)**

**I hope you all like this sequel to my story Skipper's Secret! :)**

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The lair inside the platform in the penguins' habitat at the Central Park Zoo was quiet, not a sound to be heard. Alex was alone in there, sitting in front of the T.V., watching whatever was on, although it was muted. She had asked her father if she could go with them when they did a mission, but Skipper had said that Alice was staying at the zoo late, and he didn't want to take the chance of Alex finally getting caught. The female penguin has been here four months now, and still no human saw that an extra penguin is hanging around the others; every time Alex comes out of the lair, she makes sure no human is around.

But other than being stuck in the HQ while the zoo's open or when the other penguins go on their missions, Alex guess she liked it here, though she's been trying to find the right time to tell Kowalski, her boyfriend, that she was going to leave soon and go back to her mother. She's missed Daisy. She was glad that she finally had a father, but she never realize that she would be missing her mother this much; well after all, Daisy was the one who raised her, so she guessed it made sense.

Finally, bored of watching the muted T.V., Alex got to her feet and walked to the couch and laid down. She's been sleeping on this couch since there were only four bunks, one each for the penguins who lived here before she arrived. Soon after her arrival, Kowalski had offered her his bunk to sleep in instead of the hard couch, but Alex had told him that she was fine with sleeping on it and that she couldn't take his bed.

Right when she was slowly drifting into the darkness of sleeping, the hatch open, making her jerk into wakefulness. Alex opened her eyes and got up, looking across the lair at the ladder, where the four penguins were climbing down, jumping off it, landing on their feet in front of the bunks.

As soon as he saw that she was awake, Kowalski walked over to her, leaving his friends to do whatever they wanted. Alex noticed that Skipper said something to Private, who nodded and went back up the ladder, disappearing out of the hole that closed heartbeat later. The leader and Rico went to the table where they began to play cards. Normally Alex would ask if she could join in, but she knew she couldn't keep holding off telling Kowalski that it was about time she left.

"I brought you something, honey," the smart penguin announced, and Alex noticed that he had his flippers behind his back.

She looked at him with a curious look, wondering what it was.

He held out his flippers which had a snow cone in it; he had a smile on his face as he handed it to his girlfriend. Alex made herself smile, although it wasn't a real one; she just hoped Kowalski didn't see what. Honestly, the last thing she wanted right now was a snow cone, but if she refused it, he would start to get suspicious and ask her what was wrong, and she couldn't tell him what she wanted to in front of everyone.

She looked down at the slowly melting rainbow ice that was in a paper cone; the color water was dripping on her flipper then it dropped to the floor, making a very ting pool. The penguin sighed and began licking the ice before it melted completely. But her mind wasn't on what she was doing. Instead it was whiling with everything she had to tell Kowalski. She sometimes wish telling stuff like this was easy, but it's not, and she had to tell him, like it or not...and she doesn't like it, because she knows once she tells him, he'll be sad.

Alex put her tongue back in her beak and looked up from her snow cone. "We need to talk."

"Okay." There was concern deep in Kowalski's eyes, but his voice was filled with confidence.

Slightly aware of the other two penguins' eyes watching her and Kowalski walking to the ladder, Alex tried to push the forbearance out of her head. She began to climb upwards, the snow cone still in her flipper, but just then the fishbowl was moved aside and Private's face appeared. He had a worry look in his eyes as he looked down at Alex, who jumped off the ladder to allow the young penguin to climb down.

When Private got inside, he walked over to his leader and whispered something to him. Skipper turned to him with a disturb look on his face.

"Where? When?" the leader questioned Private, who shrugged, and pointed up, probably saying "out there" without using words. Skipper said something else to the penguin, but it was too quiet for Alex to hear. Then Private handed his leader something. Which Skipper took and then walked over to his daughter; Alex watched him walk over with confusion filling inside her.

_What was going on?_

Skipper held out his flipper which had a piece of paper in it. "This is for you," her father said. "Not sure what it says, but whoever gave it to Private said that it was important that it gets handed over to you right away."

Alex took it and started reading it, aware that her snow core was still melting slowly. When she was half way though the note, her eyes widened, and she couldn't stop herself from gasping. She heard Kowalski ask her what was wrong, but he sounded far away. The penguin kept reading the letter, her eyes moving from word to word; she suddenly felt sick, and like she was about to fall over and past out. When she got to the end of it, she began to cry, and the snow cone dropped from her flipper, hitting the ground. She had tried to keep the tears inside her, but when she blinked, the hot water started to roll out of her eyes and down her cheek.

It felt like time had stopped moving as she threw the paper to the floor and started to climb the ladder. She could feel the eyes of the other penguins watching her as she went, and she saw out of the corner of eyes that Kowalski tried to follow her, but Skipper held out his flipper, singling to the smart penguin to stay where he was.

Reluctantly, Kowalski obeyed his leader and stayed where he stood, watching his girlfriend jump out of the hole and hope onto the platform outside. Even when she was gone out of his sight, he still stared at where she was a few moments ago. It was his leader's voice that roused him from his deep thoughts.

"Maybe we should give her some space," Skipper suggested as he walked over to the paper Alex had dropped. He picked it up and looked it over, although Kowalski knew he couldn't understand a word on it. "But I want to know what this letter says and why it made her start crying."

His team exchanged glances, having no idea what could be written on the paper.

Silence fell onto the room as the penguins tried to come up with a logical reason why Alex would just break down crying in front of them. After all, she had Skipper's blood; he _never _cried.

"Private."

The young penguin looked up at his leader when he called him. "Yes, Skippah?"

"Who gave you this letter?" Skipper asked.

The private shrugged. "I was going to go get the popcorn like you told me when suddenly a bird landed in front of me. He had a piece of paper in his mouth, and he handed it to me, saying that I needed to get it to Alex right away and that it was important."

"How does he know Alex?" Kowalski asked, suddenly curious and worried.

Private shrugged again. "He didn't ask if I knew her or not. He just...handed me the letter and said that." He took a step closer to his leader as he added," At first I wasn't sure if I should bring it to her, but then King Julien walked by and said that–"

"Ringtail?" There was surprise, and even suspicion, in Skipper's voice. "What did he want?"

"Well, he had wanted to know where Alex was," Private replied. "Then he saw the letter and asked what it was. I told me that some bird just give it to me, and he said that I had to give it to Alex, because it could be important, but I didn't know it would make her cry, honestly!" He stared wide eyed at his leader.

Skipper was looking at the younger penguin with a very thoughtful look on his face and unreadable eyes. When he blinked, though, whatever was in his eyes vanished to be replaced with determination. "Let's take this and have the chimps read it to us," he said as he pointed to the letter with his other flipper. Then he rolled the paper up and place it under his flipper as he began to climb the ladder.

Private and Rico followed their leader, but when he got to the ladder, Private slipped on the snow cone that was slowly melting on the floor.

The small penguin got to his feet, but the ice-water was still on the bottom of his foot, making it hard for him to stand. Rico sucked up the melting ice like a vacuum, cone and all. Then Private started kicking his feet, spraying the water everywhere, but when he could put his feet on the ground without slipping, him and Rico started climbing the ladder.

Kowalski stayed where he was for a few moments, until he decided to go with his friends.

When he got out of the hole and onto the island, he looked all around him, going in a complete circle, so he could take in anything he could see. He didn't see what he wanted to though.

_Why did Alex go?_

Noticing that his friends had jumped out of the habitat, Kowalski shook his head to clear it and followed them, hoping where ever she was at that Alex was alright and watching out for danger; he could tell by the way her expression her deepen into misery that whatever the letter said it wasn't good. He wasn't worry about what the letter said though. If she was too sad to watch out where she was putting her own feet or what was surrounding her, Alex could get hurt.

Just then his feet came out of under him, and he found himself laying on the ground, on his stomach. He got up and saw that he had tripped over the legs of one of the tables. He shook his head to stop the buzzing sound. He suddenly realize that Alex could start running into stuff like he did; he hadn't been watching where he was going and it ended up laying on the ground with a sore foot.

He looked around him and saw that his friends had disappeared.

_Good thing I know where they're going, _he thought as he began to limp to the chimpanzees habitat; every time he tried to put all his weight on his foot, pain shot through him, so he decided to favor it for now, and when he got back to his lab he could check it out and see if it was broken or not. He really hoped it wasn't broke; a cold dread ran through him when he remembered the time Skipper had broken his flipper.

He started laughing when he remembered that he and the others thought their leader was a zombie. _There's no such thing as zombies anyways, _he told himself as he continued limping. He didn't want to go through all that again, so he prayed that his foot wasn't broken and only sore.

It took all his strength to jump over the walls of the chumps habitat, but once over it and on the platform, he joined his friends as they stood in front of Mason and Phil, who was reading the letter with each others' help.

Private turned to the strategist and then looked down at the penguin's foot, noticing that he was putting his weight on one of them while he was lightly putting the other one on the ground. "What happened?" he asked as he glanced up; Kowalski heard the deep concern in his voice.

When he said that Skipper and Rico turned to Kowalski, who tried to hide the pain on his face as he stood up straight, putting some of the weight on his injured foot, so it would look like he was fine; he was sure if Skipper was that he was hurt that leader would order him to go right back to HQ and go to his bed, so he doesn't damage his foot anymore. Kowalski wanted to try to help Alex any way he could though and find out what was wrong with her.

"Nothing happened," the smart penguin murmured. "I'm fine." As much as he tried to, he couldn't keep his voice from shaking with pain.

"No, you're not." Skipper eyed him, crossing his flippers on his his chest. "You hurt your foot, didn't you?"

Kowalski held his leader's gaze for a long moment that seemed to stretch on for hours. Finally he sighed and lowered his eyes to feet, lifting his injured one up so most of the pain would stop. "I tripped over a leg on one of the tables," he explained, but added quickly as he turned back to his leader," But I'm fine. It doesn't hurt that bad now." He hated lying to his friends, but he knew that if he told the truth, they would just make him turn around and go back to HQ.

"I know you're lying, Kowalski," the leader finally said. "But I'm going to allow you to stay...for now anyways. If your injury slows us down or gets worse, you're going to go back and rest. Got it?" He raised a nonexistence eyebrow as he stared at Kowalski, his flippers still crossed.

Instantly Kowalski brightened up and nodded. "Okay, Skipper," he agreed. "That sounds fair."

"Um...I don't want to interrupt this moment or anything," Mason said as he turned to the penguins, who all looked at the chimps. "But I believe I understand why Alex ran away."

Skipper took a few steps closer to the tree that Mason and Phil was in. "What does the letter say, chimp?"

The two chimps exchanged worry and distressed looks, then turned back to the penguins. Mason opened his mouth, about to reply, when suddenly a voice called out," Hey, penguins!"

Everybody turned around and saw the three lemurs jump into the habitat, running to the penguins. Julien looked around as if he was trying to find something; Kowalski knew exactly who he wanted to see.

"Where's Alex?" the king asked. "I need my other subject for a little bit."

Skipper glared at the lemur, but before he could say anything, Kowalski limped in between them and said," She's not here at the moment." He didn't like that Alex had promise to be Julien's subject as much as Skipper did, but the last time he tried to talk her out of it, they got into a big fight that almost broke them up. He just has to expect that she wants to be part of Julien's kingdom for some reason.

Skipper, on the other hand, hated the idea of his daughter being the lemur's subject. Kowalski tried to get him to just let her do what she wants, but every time he got a few words out, he would start yelling and glaring at him, and Kowalski would back down, running away from the leader before he could attack the strategist.

"Where is she then?" Maurice asked, walking to his king's side.

"We have no idea," Private replied, earning a slap to the back of his head from Skipper. He turned confused eyes on his leader as he rubbed where he got slapped, but Skipper had turned his attention back to the lemurs.

"This is none of your business," he growled.

Julien walked over to Skipper, while the other two lemurs stayed where they were, watching their king. "This is my business, bossy penguin." He pocked the leader's belly, making him stumble a little. "If it has to do with my subject, then it has to do with me."

"For the last time, Ringtail, Alex is not–"

He was interrupted by Mason. "Excuse me," the chimp called to everyone, and once he had their attention, he went on: "You really need to hear what this letter says."

"Alright then." Skipper shifted his weight and he folded his flippers across his chest once more. "Read it."

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**I hope you all liked this first chapter! I'll have another chapter up later today! :)**


	2. A New Penguin

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! So far I only own Alex and her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance). And a new character that I own is announced in this chapter! :)**

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The chimp who could talk held up the letter so his friend could read it; Phil started using his hands to say something, and Mason opened his mouth, beginning to read the letter.

_"Dear Alex,"_ Mason began reading the letter, while everyone listened to him,_" how have you been? The first few days here without you were king of boring–"_

"Skip down, chimp," Skipper order Mason, who glanced at him, muttered "Right" and then he turned back to Phil, who started to read the letter in his head until he got half way through it. Then he began to say what the letter said with his hands, while Mason said it out loud.

_"Jason wanted me to tell you that he's been thinking about you nonstop since you left."_

Once again the chimp was interrupted, but this time it was by Kowalski, who demanded," Who the hell is Jason?"

Everyone turned to look at the tall penguin, who looked down at his feet, shifting them and instantly remembering the soreness. Wincing a little, he tried again, saying a lot calmer," I mean, who's Jason? And why is thinking about Alex?"

"Um...maybe you should hear this part," Mason responded and all eyes turned back to him; Kowalski let out a sigh of relief. He didn't understand where that suddenly burst of jealousy came from, but just the thought of someone else thinking about his girlfriend made him mad. _"Jason said that he can't wait until you get back, and that he still loves you," _the chimp went on with the letter. _"If you ask me, __I think __he's finally lost it."_

"Well, it looks like this Jason has a crush on Alex," Skipper observed.

Kowalski didn't say anything, but he still felt jealous that someone else liked Alex. He tried to push it to to back of his mind, along with the sharp pain his foot, as he listened to Mason.

"But there's something else," the chimp said. "Something that you ought to hear..." He exchanged a glance with Phil.

"What is it?" Private asked, while Rico leaned closer as if he was really interested.

The chimp cleared his throat, then he watched as his friend started saying something with his hands. _"I wanted to tell you all the good stuff, before I got to the bad news," _Mason echoed his silent friend. _"I'm so sorry Alex, but Daisy is dead. She had got very sick about two months ago, and–"_

"You can stop right there, chimp," Skipper ordered, looking down. Kowalski limped to his leader and put his flipper on his back, trying to comfort him as much as he could. "Now we know why Alex began to cry." The smart penguin was surprised to hear Skipper's voice shake a little.

_Did he still love Daisy? _he wondered. _It was too late now though..._

Even though he felt sorry for his leader, Daisy having been his former mate, he hoped Alex was okay, wherever she was. She must feel like the world was coming to an end, having lost her mother. At least she still had a father. He glanced at Skipper, and wondered if the tough penguin would be able to try to comfort his daughter and get her through this difficult time. Kowalski will try to do what he can, but he knows she will need her father more than anything right now.

No animal talked for a while, and Kowalski could feel tension as if everyone was worrying about Alex but mourning over Daisy, although nobody but Skipper knew her.

The silence was broken by Private, who yelled in surprise and started pointing. "Alice!" he told everyone. His friends turned to looked at their habitat and noticed that the zookeeper was going right to it. The penguins had to get back there, before the human did. Instantly, they jumped out of the chimp habitat, leaving the lemurs to hurry back to their own home before the zookeeper saw them. Kowalski swallowed his pain from his foot as he tried his best to keep up with his friends. They found a fast way back to their home. They all hopped into the water and swam to the island, where they climb onto just before Alice got there.

The zookeeper put a broad down that would help her cross the water to the island. Kowalski noticed that she was holding a crate in her hands that made her unsteady and she almost fell into the water a few times, but she finally stepped onto the platform and put the box down. She took out a crowbar and opened the it.

The four penguins looked into the darkness. Kowalski saw a shape laying in the box, but he couldn't see what it was, although he knew it had to be another penguin.

Alice didn't wait to see if the animal would come out of the box. She started walking across the broad again, and then took it with her as she walked away, leaving the penguins alone with their new habitat-mate.

Private was the first one to walk closer to the crate. His eyes tried to see the penguin inside more clearer. Then he offered him his flipper, while saying," Hello there. I'm Private."

The unknown penguin lifted his head and stared at the young penguin, although because of the darkness Kowalski couldn't be sure what he was feeling from his expression.

Then the new penguin got out of the box and shook itself. It wasn't until the penguin stared at the others that Kowalski saw that it was a girl. She was looking around with wander in her eyes.

When she saw that Private was walking to her, her brow bent, and she took a few steps backwards, but the young penguin was still advancing, and with a worry feeling, Kowalski saw that it was making the female penguin nervous.

Then the new penguin got in a fighting position and kicked Private in the head as he came even closer. The blow sent the small penguin flying across the platform, making him land in the water. When he didn't surface, Skipper order Rico to go fetch him. The psychopath jumped into the water, leaving Skipper to glared at the female penguin.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Skipper demanded, walking closer to the new penguin.

The female penguin, still in the fighting position, blinked a few times but didn't say anything.

A heartbeat later, Rico jumped onto the platform, carrying Private. He set the young penguin down on his stomach, and Kowalski heard him coughing, getting the water out of his throat, so he could breath. Then he struggled to his feet and stumbled over to the one who hit him; the female was still looking nervous, and she didn't put down her flippers as she watched Private walk to her.

"Why did you do that?" he asked, anger edging his voice.

The female penguin put down her flippers and looked at the boys in front of her. Then she said," I'm sorry. I'm not used to being around other animals. The last zoo I came from only had one other penguin, and we really didn't talk much, and I never left my habitat to meet the other animals."

"Well, I know you're going to love it here," Private response, the anger gone from his voice, and a smile formed on his beak, while his eyes started to shine, probably thinking he could make a new friend, once the new penguin got used to being around others.

"So..." Kowalski took a step closer to the female, a little wary of her. There was just something about her that made him not sure he should trust her. "You have a name?"

She looked up at him, and he noticed that she too had a suspicious look in her eyes, like she was having trouble trusting the male penguins. "Victoria," she replied simply, her eyes hard as she glanced around at the animals in front of her.

Pushing down his suspicion of the female penguin, Kowalski introduced himself. Then his friends told Victoria their names, but he noticed that Skipper didn't like the newcomer either.

"We were right in the middle of doing something important," Skipper said once Victoria knew everyone's name. "It's classified though, so we can't tell you about it." He smirked at the female penguin, like he was happy that he knew something that she didn't, but Victoria just shrugged.

"I don't care anyways," the female penguin muttered. "I'm tired, so if you could show me where I could sleep, that would be much appreciated." Her words sounded nice, but her voice had a harsh tone to them, and Kowalski narrowed his eyes at her.

Kowalski saw the edge of Skipper's beak twitch, but all the leader said to Victoria was," Right." Then he turned to the tall penguin and said," You can take her in the lair." He leaned closer to him and whispered to him so the female couldn't hear," But don't let her go through our stuff."

Kowalski was about to say no, but he didn't want to say the exact word. "But Skipper," he protested instead," I want to go find Alex and see if she's okay."

"We'll go find her," Skipper argued. "Now do as you're told. And besides," he added a little gentler," your foot is probably still hurting."

His injured foot was not in his mind until Skipper mentioned it. Now the pain suddenly rushed back in the foot, making the smart penguin lift it, which made what Skipper said true, so the leader looked at his scientist with a look that said "Got ya".

Kowalski sighed and murmured," Fine." Then he walked over to the bowl and pushed it aside, singling to Victoria to follow him, which she did, although he saw that she was being caution. Once inside, Kowalski slowly got off the ladder, because not that the thought was in his head, his foot was hurting even more. He had to see if it was broken or not.

As he made his way to his lab, he said over his shoulder to Victoria," I'm going to be in here, so if you need me, call. And please don't touch anything. The bunks are over there," he added when he saw her looking around. "Or you can sleep on the couch. Whichever one you want." Then he disappeared in his lab, going to check to make sure that his foot wasn't broken. He was limping pretty bad though.

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**I'll have another chapter up tomorrow! :)**


	3. Emily

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! So far I only own Alex and her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance) and Victoria. And another character that I own is announced in this chapter! :)**

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The park was quiet, and the sun was slowly setting, turning the sky a red color. Even though the sun hadn't vanished completely, an almost full moon floated in the growing-dark sky. Alex was walking under the branches of the trees that surrounded her, keeping to the shadows, so no one could see her, and she wished the sun would hurry up and set, so it would be harder for anyone to see her, even if her father and the others were looking for her. She knew they must be worried about her, but after finding out that her mother had died, she just suddenly felt like she needed time alone.

Something hit her head, making her come to a halt and look up. However, when she lift her eyes to the tree above her, pain shot through her head as something hit her again. As she rubber her head, she took a few steps forward, so whatever was falling couldn't collided with her head again. She looked at the ground where she was just standing and saw two acorns a few inches away from her feet. When she let her attention go back to the tree branch above her, another acorn fell again, missing Alex but barely.

A bushy tail appeared from the leaves on the branch, and Alex instantly knew who it was; she wasn't sure if she should he happy to see this squirrel or not.

After letting out a soft sigh, Alex called up to him. "Fred!"

The tail vanished in the leaves for a moment, and a head popped out a heartbeat later, looking down at the penguin. "Oh, hello." Fred let go of the branch he was hanging on, dropping to the next branch, where he sat and stared at Alex. He paused for a moment, before adding," Do I know you?"

"We met a few months old," Alex replied, feeling slightly annoyed. She knew that this squirrel wasn't that smart. "I saw you a few days old, when I was out with Skipper and his team." Still, Fred looked lost, so Alex gave up. "Never mind. It doesn't matter," she said, frowning deeply. "Nothing matters anymore." Alex walked to the tree's trunk, and sat down in front of it, putting her back on it as she sighed deeply.

Fred jumped out of the tree, landing right next to Alex, who glanced at him as he sat down beside her. "Is something wrong?" Was that concern in his voice? Although Alex knew him, he seemed to have forgotten her, so she was wondering why he was feeling sorry for an almost complete stranger.

Without looking at him, she began to explain. "I had received this letter from a friend of mine from the zoo I used to live in. In the letter, she wrote that my mother had..." She paused and swallowed the bile that was choking her. Then she went on: "That my mother had pass away..." She let her voice trailed off.

Suddenly, the squirrel's eyes grew wide and filled up with sympathy and understanding. His tail wrapped around Alex's shoulder as he said," I'm sorry." He paused for a moment, before adding," But these things happen."

Alex was surprised when he said that. It didn't sound like a thing he would say, but she knew he was right. She knew a few animals that had died, but she never dreamed of her own mother dying. She guessed that nobody ever dreams of their family member or friend passing away. It was just a part of life, just like birth is. Suddenly she understand that there was three stages of life: Birth, living, and death. She felt even sadder at this realization. Her mother had told her about the Great Circle of Life, which even took place with zoo animals. She never truly understood that until now though.

She was still aware that Fred was sitting beside her, his tail on her shoulder, staring at her with deep sadness and pity in his eyes. Alex didn't want his pity though. She knew that he will still feel sorry for her, even if she told him not to, although she hated it when people look at her the way he was looking at her now: big, round, sad eyes with nothing but pity in there.

Suddenly she felt like she needed comfort from her father. Would Skipper give it to her though? Would he want to talk or would he want to forget about it? Alex realize that the only way to answer those questions were to find him and try to talk to him. After all, Daisy was Alex's mother, while she was Skipper's former mater. They were in this together.

She got to her feet and turned to Fred, who looked up at her. "I better go," she announced as she looked up at the sky. By now the sun had set completely and the moon was slowly floating across the sky. Alex could see that it was almost high above the trees. She hadn't realized that she had been out this long. She knew that Skipper must be worried about her.

_I better get back as fast as I can, _she thought as she waved good-bye to Fred, who lifted his hand and waved back.

Then Alex started sliding to the zoo.

When the zoo entrance had came into view, she heard a twig snapped; she came to a halt and jumped to her feet, looking all around her, suddenly feeling eyes burning into her skin. She turned sharply when she heard something move in a bush. Every muscle inside her tensed, she began walking toward the moving bush, not taking her eyes off of it.

Something touched her shoulder, and she spun around, about to hit whatever had grabbed onto her, but she relaxed when she came eye to eye with her father.

"Are you okay?" Skipper asked, his voice as gentle as possible.

Alex was about to reply, but something inside her head was taunting her, saying over and over that her mother was gone, and she would never see her again or hear her voice or be comfort by her when she was scared. Before she could do anything, she felt tears rolling down her cheek. She didn't want to cry. She always thought of it as weakness, and that if she cried in front of people, they would make fun of her or tell her that she a cry baby.

A heartbeat later, the female penguin hugged Skipper, suddenly grateful that she still had her father. She knew that he didn't like getting to emotional either, but she felt him hug her back, and she even felt something wet and hot drop on her shoulder. She pulled away from him and saw that her father, the tough leader Skipper, was crying. For some reason, though, she felt reassured by the way the older penguin was acting. She was glad that he knew how she felt.

As soon as Alex had pulled away from him, though, Skipper wrapped away the tears and said in a tough commanding tone," You better come back to the zoo." Alex guessed that he was trying to act though again, and she respect him anymore for that. She then realized how much they had in conman.

Nodding, Alex replied," Alright. I just needed time alone." She followed her father to the zoo. "Then I suddenly felt like I needed to be around my friends."

"I know how you feel, Alex." Skipper came to a halt and forced his daughter to stop as well. "I still loved Daisy when I left, and I thought I'd come back, but when I didn't, I pushed those feelings to the back of my mind. When the chimps read us the note and told us that Daisy was gone, I knew I had made a big mistake." He sighed and looked down for a few moments, before looking back up at his daughter. "But sadly these things happen."

Alex widen her eyes when she heard her father echo what Fred had told her a few minutes before. She smiled and hugged her father; somehow his words comfort her. "Thank you, dad."

"Any time," Skipper responded. "That's what a father is for." He pulled away first, but he put his flippers on Alex's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "I've finally realize what being a father means." He hugged Alex again and murmured in her ear," I love you, Alex."

Alex hugged him back and replied," I love you, too, dad."

They began walking to the zoo again. When they got to the entrance, Private and Rico appeared from a bushed, stepping in front of the two penguins.

"Yay, Skippah, you found her!" Private cheered, running to Alex and hugging her. There was something about his hug that made her mad. Maybe she had enough of hugging for one day? Or was it that she only wanted her father to hug her, since they were related? She realized that she knew the other three penguins for as long as she knew Skipper, but she felt more comfortable around him since he was her father. She even felt a little uncomfortable around Kowalski sometimes.

She pulled away from Private, but before she could say anything to him, she heard something move behind her. It sounded like what she heard before her father had found her: Something moving in the bushes.

The other penguins seemed to have heard it too, because Skipper turned around and looked all over the area, but he gave no sign of seeing anything. Private looked from side to side, his eyes as wide as possible, while Rico got a hard look on his face and coughed up a stick of TNT. To Alex's surprised, the psychopath lit the bomb and smiled wickedly.

When he saw what his teammate had coughed up, Skipper licked his flipper and put out the fire. "Enough with the TNT, Rico," the leader ordered, which made the crazy bird grunt sadly and lower the stick with his head hung.

Alex kind of felt bad for him. She knew that he loved explosives and tried to used them as much as he could, but his friends always stopped him, most of the time, when they don't need it.

When the penguins had heard the rustling, it had got quiet, and Alex could see that the silence was getting to the others. It was also bugging her. She knew something was out there, watching them, waiting for them to move on, so it could jump on them and attack them without any warnings. Alex got in a fighting position, looking around. Her eyes landed on a bush that was slowly moving in the moonlight, although there wasn't any wind to disturb it.

She began to walk over to it, aware that Skipper was calling to her, telling her to come back. She ignored him, though, wanting to see who or what this creature was.

Alex stopped in front of it, took a deep breath, and then she parted the leaves. Staring down she let out a surprised gasped when she saw what was hiding in the bushed. She widened her eyes and stumbled backwards.

The other three penguins ran to her; Skipper helped her to her feet, while Private waddled over to the bush, and, very slowly, he parted the leaves on the bush, but instead of jumping back, he said to the creature inside," Hello there. What are you doing here? In a bush?"

The bush started moving again and the creature stood up, revealing itself. Alex blinked a few times. Standing in front of her, still in the bush, was a female lemur was with ring tail, just like Julien's. She almost looked exactly like the king, expect with big, bright green eyes.

Alex heard Skipper sigh and murmured," Not another one."

The lemur got out of the bush and stopped next to Alex, but she seemed to be talking to Skipper when she began to speak. "Do you know a lemur called King Julien?" she asked.

It was Private who answered. "Yes, we know him. Do you know him?"

"Yes," the lemur replied. "Could you take me to him?"

At first Skipper seemed like he wanted to say no, but in the end, he nodded and said," Follow us."

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Back at the zoo, in the lemur habitat, the king sat on his throne and listened to his MP3 Player; he was enjoying hearing nothing but the songs he got used to over the months. He let out a soundless sigh as he slipped a little into the tall chair. He was right in the middle of one of his favorite songs, "Mean" by Taylor Swift. He couldn't hear anything else but the song, but he had told Maurice and Mort to leave him alone for the rest of the night. Normally he would be dancing right about now, since it was nighttime, but since he got the MP3 Player, he's been listening to his songs by the headphones. With the help of Kowalski and Alex, and even Mort, he had learned how to use it, and now he liked it better than his boomy-box.

Right now music only played; it played for a few seconds, until finally Taylor Swift started to sing again. Julien pushed himself into a more comfortable position. This was his favorite part in the song.

Just then the three male penguins and Alex jumped into his habitat, doing flips and landing in front of Julien's throne; the king jumped up, pushing the paused button on his MP3 Player. He then jumped off the chair, landing in front of them. He ran to Alex, hugging her and saying," I'm glad to see that you are safe, subject."

Alex hugged him back and said," Of course, my king." Skipper pushed the lemur off his daughter before she could say anything else.

The king stumble over to his throne, hitting it, and his MP3 Player fell out of his hand. He quickly took off his headphones and got to his feet, but before he could make a sharp retort to the lead penguin, Skipper rolled his eyes and announced," We found a friend of yours."

"Huh?" Julien forgot about his anger toward the penguin when he started to wonder what he meant.

At the same moment, Maurice and Mort jumped onto the platform and walked over to their king, but they stared at the penguins instead of saying anything to Julien.

Instead of answering, Skipper just turned his back on the lemurs and called out," Okay, you can come up here now!"

Everyone fell quiet. Julien narrowed his eyes when he saw a shape jump into his habitat. The ring tail king widen his eyes when he saw who it was as she jumped onto the platform. He had thought he had seen the last of her when he left Madagascar. Here she was, though, standing in front of him, staring at him with those same big, bright green eyes he had missed since he left his home island.

"Emily!" gasped Julien.

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**I'll have another chapter up later today!**


	4. Bad News

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! So far I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, and Emily!**

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Emily took a step closer to her king. "Have you missed me?" she asked as a smiled formed on her face, while she stared at Julien, who found himself getting excited.

"Of course I have," he replied, taking a step toward the lemur he used to love–and might still love. He had forgotten everyone else around him but himself and Emily, until Maurice took a step forward, which brought him to his king's side, and he blinked as he looked at Emily.

"How did you find us?" the aye-aye asked her.

The female lemur looked down at her gray feet and studied them without replying. The look in her eyes told Julien that she didn't want to talk about her journey, so he made a mental note to ask her about it when they were alone. It had been a long, long time since the king had last seen Emily, and he wanted to get her alone the first chance he got; he had pushed all the feelings he felt for her to the back of his mind, believing he would never see her again. As soon as his eyes landed on her, those feelings were sent to the front of his brain, and now he couldn't stop himself from loving her again.

Seeing that everyone has tensed, waiting for Julien to say or do something, the king pushed all those feelings to the back of his mind, although it took a lot more strength than he thought it would. "Never mind her adventure, Maurice," he finally said, and he mentally slapped himself when he heard his voice crack. Clearing his throat, he added in a calmer voice," What really matters is that she gets some rest." He walked to Emily's side and grabbed her hand, pulling her to the edge of the platform. "You must be exhausted, journeying all the way from Madagascar."

To his surprise, Emily pulled away from him, coming to a halt. "No, I'm fine," she assured him."I found a tree to sleep in when I was walking through the park. I had waited until the sun went down, so no human would see me, and because I knew the zoo would be closed once the sun sets."

Suddenly Julien was curious, wanting to know more, but he forced himself to not ask any questions. He decided to wait until the penguins left his habitat. Then he could order Maurice and Mort to leave him and Emily alone, while they talked.

"Alright then," Julien murmured. "As long as you're not sleepy or need to rest." He tried to shake of his own exhaustion as he stood in front of Emily. He had a feeling tonight was going to be a long night, and he didn't think he'd be able to get sleep anytime soon.

Emily sighed, but instead of annoyance in her eyes, there was amusement as she blinked gently at the king; Julien guessed that she understood why he was worrying about her.

Julien cleared his throat again, and he calmed himself as he turned back to the penguins. "Thanks for being her to me," he told them. "It means a lot to me, but it's time for you all to leave." He started pushing the penguins away.

Alex instantly dipped her head and murmured," Yes, my king." She helped Julien push her friends away. Skipper glared at the king when he put his hands on him, and he knocked him off him, growling at him.

"We're going!" he told him. Then he turned on his daughter, ordering," Stop listening to him!"

Alex opened her mouth as if to gave him a sharp retort, but Julien didn't have time for this, so he gave his penguin subject a glare, and she immediately shut her beak.

Private and Rico glanced at the daughter and father, until Skipper ordered them to leave the habitat, and they disappeared over the wall. Julien noticed Alex glance at him, as if waiting for an order, but before he could give her one, Skipper told her," Back to the lair...Now!"

Sighing, Alex turned away from the king and did flips over the wall. Skipper glared at Julien before following his daughter.

Julien found himself standing on the platform, staring after the penguins. He was aware of Emily beside him, confused about what just happened, but he didn't want to explain to her just now about the whole situation with Alex. Shaking his head a little to clear it and hoping to get rib of some of his sleepiness, he turned to the female lemur.

"Come on, Emily," he said, making sure that it wasn't obvious that he was stress thanks to that lead penguin. "If you want, I could show you around the zoo. Starting with my kingly habitat."

The look the female lemur gave Julien was full of pleasure, warming him and making him feel better. "I would like that," she said in a soft voice as she intertwined her hand with his.

Julien looked down at their hands, and he felt hotness overtake him from head to toe. Clearing his throat, he said," Come on." He began to walk away, only to stop, making Emily come to a halt as well. "This is my throne," he announced, pointing to the tall chair. "And that over there is my bouncy." He pointed to it, then turned to where the bar was. "And that's where we makes the smoothies." He began to show her the rest of the habitat, trying to not let Skipper's attitude ruin his time with Emily.

* * *

"And this is where animals and other stuff is shipped out of the zoo and is received." Julien and Emily stood in front of the entrance of the opening. In the darkness, the king could see a few boxes, but other than that this area was empty.

As he stared in the darkness, he found his mind wandering to Alex. He didn't understand why Skipper couldn't just let her be his subject and why he got mad every time he told her to do something. _It's no different than him ordering his team around! _the king reflected.

"Your Majesty?"

Emily's voice brought Julien back to where he stood in the shipping and receiving area, and he shook his head to clear it as she went on.

"Are you okay?" she asked the ring tail, putting her hand on his shoulder, but she quickly pulled it away when he glanced down at it. "Sorry," she muttered as she bowed her head and took a step back.

Julien frowned, realizing that she still saw him as a king and nothing more. He wanted her to treat him more than just a king, but he wasn't entirely sure what. He knew he didn't want her to bow down or apologize every time she touched him.

When the king didn't answer her question, she repeated it; this time Julien heard the concern in her voice, and her eyes shined with confusion.

"I'm fine," Julien lied, wanting it to be true as much as Emily thought it was, if she believe him, that is. Desperate to change the subject, he saw this was the best time to question her about her arrival. "So, Emily..." He shifted his feet, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. He had thought about the words he would used to ask her this question the whole time he was showing her around the zoo, knowing all along that he was going to take her to the shipping and receiving area last, because it was in the back of the zoo.

Although looking at her now, all the words escaped his mind and he couldn't remember what he was going to ask her.

Emily blinked, the confusion still in her eyes, as she looked at Julien, who glanced at her. Sighing, he figured it was best to just say the first thing that came to his mind and get over with it.

"What are you going here, in New York, and not in Madagascar?" he finally asked her, and as soon as he was done talking, her eyes suddenly filled with sadness, the confusion washed away by the sudden sorrowfulness. He didn't understand. Why would her emotions change so fast after he asked her one single question?

Looking away, Emily sighed sadly. Then she turned back, the sadness in her eyes increasing. It was a few minutes until she replied," Madagascar is in trouble."

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**I'll have another chapter up tomorrow!**


	5. Trouble

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! So far I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, and Emily! And I own everyone in this chapter! :)**

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The sun was shining, making the water sparkle, as it lapped at the sand of the Madagascar beach. Clouds drifted across the blue sky, and the wind was starting to pick up, causing the leaves on the trees to dance. Suddenly the wind stopped, but one of the tree's branches were still moving as a dark shadow move from tree to tree. Another shadow followed it. The leaves on the trees hide the two creatures. They seemed to be heading for the sand.

A heartbeat later, the animal in the lead came to a halt, only visible by the holes between the leaves. The other one stopped beside it. They prickled their ears as if they were listening for something. Then one of them whispered to its companion," I think it's safe. They hardly come out here, since they hate water."

The other creature nodded its head and then flicked its black tail to single its friend that they should keep going. The beach was only a few trees away.

Finally, they burst out of the trees, and for the first time they showed themselves as jumped out of the last tree that marked the boundary for the sand and trees. They were both lemurs. One of them, the one in the lead, had an orange front side, while his back, hands, arms, feet, and tail was black. Around his eyes was also black. The other one was a gray lemur with a gray-and-black ring tail.

"We should be safe here," the black-and-orange one said as he walked toward the water, leaving the shelter of the forest behind. He really didn't like being in the open, but he knew it was better than having to look over his shoulder every time he was under the trees.

The ring tail lemur ran after her friend, looking around as if she believed that they weren't safe. There was a look in her eyes that showed that she believed there was nowhere on the island that they were safe. She was so busy looking around that she forgot to keep an eye on where she was going, and she ran into the other lemur.

The male animal turned to her and snapped," Watch where you're going, Lilian!"

Lilian took a step back, looking up at the taller lemur. "Sorry," she muttered. "I was just thinking that they could be watching us from the trees." She pointed to the forest.

The black-and-orange creature put his arm around the younger lemur's shoulder and murmured to her," Of course they are watching. Dark has made sure that they watch everyone. If you ask me," he added in a lower voice," he's afraid that one of us will see that he's nothing but a bully who takes pressure in making people suffer and that we'll try to take control from him. He's nothing but a pussy cat."

The female lemur gasped and looked around, wide eyed. "Weasel!" she breathed in a hushed voice as she turned her scared yellow eyes on her friend. "You know that one of Dark's cats will go straight to him if he hears you say that, and then Dark will come hunt you down and maybe kill you!"

Weasel snorted and said in a dark tone," There's nothing else he could do to me. He already killed my parents, and Elizabeth has joined him, along with some of the other lemurs. I don't understand why they think it would be safer to follow Dark."

"I suppose they think that if they joined him, they he won't kill them. Including your sister," Lilian added when Weasel turned to her with eyes that showed both sadness and anger. "I know you feel betrayed, Weasel, but you have to remember: That's why Emily left. She's going to bring back the king. Perhaps he will know what to do about Dark."

Weasel sighed and turned away from his friend. He looked back at the woods and saw eyes watching them. Had they heard what the two lemurs said? There was something inside Weasel that hoped they didn't, but the rest of him couldn't careless. He hated Dark and all the other cats that had took over Madagascar. He remembered the first time they had came to the island. The had stowaway on a shipping boat; Weasel wasn't sure if Dark and his cats knew where the boat was going, but they ended up here. At first they seemed nice, but as soon as Dark found out there was nobody ruling over the lemurs, he decided that he would be the leader, but most lemurs didn't want to follow him, so he had to show them that he wasn't playing. The evil cat has killed many lemurs, including Weasel's mother and father. A few days after their death, Weasel's sister, Elizabeth, had said that she going to go to Dark and ask him if she could join him. Weasel couldn't believe that his own sister would go against him, and he still didn't believe it. Now that he thought about it, Elizabeth always loved to fight, so he guess it shouldn't shock him as much as it did.

Something touched the black-and-orange lemur's shoulder, and he turned to see Lilian looking up at him with a tiny sparkle of hope in her yellow eyes. "Don't worry, Weasel," she said. "I'm sure Emily will be back with King Julien. He'll have a plan. We just have to keep hoping they will be back soon."

"Brave words, young one."

The two lemurs spun around and saw four cats stalking out of the trees, walking to them. Within a heartbeat, they had circled the animals. The one who had spoke, a dark striped brown tabby tom, stopped in front of Lilian and put his head in front of hers. Before he could say anything, Weasel pushed his friend backwards and stood his ground, protecting the younger lemur.

The striped tabby bared his teeth at the male lemur. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but one of the other cats growl," Let's take them to Dark, Tiger. Apparently they haven't learn that he's the leader here." The cat who had spoke to Tiger, a black tom, flicked his tail from side to side as he crouched in the sand, staring at the two lemurs with hostilely in his amber eyes, which narrowed as he looked on.

"Shh, Blacky!" Tiger snapped. "But we will take them to Dark," he added as he looked at the lemurs.

The other two cats immediately pushed the lemurs followed, making them stumbled, but they regained their footing, and followed Tiger and Blacky, while the other cats brought up the rear, making sure their prisoners didn't escape. All the animals went back into the forest, soon disappearing behind the leaves and bushes.

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**I'll have another chapter up later today!**


	6. Begging for Help

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! So far I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Dark, and all his cats!**

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Alex dropped into the lair, landing in front of the ladder. She felt anger at how her father always acted when she tried to take orders from her king. She didn't understand why Skipper couldn't just let her keep the promise she made to the king about her always being his loyal subject. She never broke a promise, but thanks to her father she was breaking this one.

Trying not to think about her father or Julien, the young penguin waddled farther into the lair, jumping over the twp steps in front of the bunks. She had a feeling that Kowalski was in his lab, and she needed someone to talk to, so she began to walk toward the door.

When she was almost there, she heard snoring, and she turned around sharply. She saw a penguin sleeping on the couch. Instantly, Alex got in a fighting position, and, as fast as she could, without making a sound, she made her way over to the couch. When she got there, she popped her head up so she could look down on the sleeping penguin.

_Who is this? An invader? Why __are__ they sleeping in our HQ?_

Finding it hard to answer any of those questions, Alex jumped into the air, doing a few flips, until she landed on the other side of the couch, where she leaned closer to the trespasser.

It was a female penguin, and Alex could tell that the sleeping animal was much older than her, but that didn't matter. She was infiltrated the penguins' lair!

Not knowing how the older penguin would react when she woke her up, Alex grabbed onto her foot and dragged her off the couch, throwing her on the floor and pinned her down.

The penguin let out a surprised and startled squeak as she hit the ground, causing her to wake up, but Alex didn't take pity on her. She put her face close to the invader's and growled," What are you doing, sleeping in this lair? Nobody is allowed in here, but Skipper and his team."

"I-I'm new he-here," the penguin stammered, trying to get up. She looked at Alex with wide, scared eyes.

"Yeah, right." Alex rolled her eyes, not believing a word this invader was saying. "We would have heard if there was another penguin coming to the Central Park Zoo."

The penguin tried to speak again, but just then a scream filled the lair. "Alex!"

A heartbeat later, something was pulling Alex off of the invading penguin.

Angry, Alex turned around and came face to face with her boyfriend. "Why did you do that, Kowalski?" she snapped, glaring at him. "She's an invader! She got in here somehow."

"No, she's not an invader," Kowalski informed her. "She's a new penguin. Alice just brought her here. Calm down, Alex," he added, placing his flipper on her shoulder. "Everything is okay."

Alex shook her head, and sadness filled her. She guessed that because she was so sad about her mother's death, and then she got mad at her dad for yelling at her when she was trying to listen to her king, she just had to take her anger out on someone. When she saw the new penguin, her brain must have made her believe that she was an enemy. Normally, she wouldn't jump on someone like that if she didn't know them.

"No, Kowalski," she whispered as she lower her eyes to her feet. "Nothing's okay. It's all gone wrong." Looking up again, she saw sympathy in his blue eyes.

"I'm sorry about your mother." He hugged her; Alex suddenly felt like pouring out everything to him. She had a feeling that he would listen to her, and try make her feel better, like all the other times she was sad.

Alex was about to say something, but for the first time she noticed that her boyfriend was favoring one of his feet, making sure he put no weight on it. She looked back up at Kowalski and asked in a concerned voice," What happened to your foot?"

"Oh, that," Kowalski murmured as he looked down. He sounded surprised as if he didn't want Alex to noticed. "I had tripped over a table leg earlier," he explained. "It's fine. I checked. It's not broken, just sore." He didn't look at Alex though.

She wasn't sure if she should believe him or not. He seemed to be in a lot of pain.

Suddenly the other penguin stepped followed, in between Alex and Kowalski. Alex took step back, still not sure if she should trust this unknown animal.

To Alex's surprise, though, the female penguin held out her flipper, saying," Hey, I'm Victoria."

"My name is Alex," she announced as she eyed the penguin. There was something odd about her, something that told Alex that it was a bad idea to trust her. She saw Kowalski looking at her, and she knew he was thinking the same thing, but he just shrugged. She could see that Kowalski was telling to force himself to like this penguin, and she guessed she had to do the same.

"It's nice to meet you," she murmured. "I'm sorry I attacked you."

To her surprised, Victoria laughed and replied," It's alright. You thought your home was in danger, so you did what your instinct told you to do. I admire that." She smiled as she looked at Alex.

Alex felt warm by her words._ Maybe I can trust her after all, _she thought as she pushed the nagging feeling that was telling her to not welcome this stranger to the back of her mind.

Just then the hatch opened, and Skipper and the other two started climbing down the ladder. When she saw her father, Alex told Victoria and Kowalski to excuse her, before she went over to Skipper. She wanted to tell her father off for his behavior earlier in the lemur habitat, but she stopped as soon as she saw the look on his face. There was just something in his eyes that made her start to think something was wrong.

When Skipper saw his daughter, the look vanished to be replaced with a hard look. He nodded to her and put his flipper on her shoulder, as if to say that their fight was forgotten. Then he waddled over to Kowalski. He whispered to him, and the smart penguin widened his eyes. Alex saw him murmur something back in a quiet voice, in which Skipper replied instantly, but they were talking too quiet and Alex couldn't hear them. She wondered what they could be talking about, but she stayed where she was, with Private and Rico on either side of her, looking at their leader and Kowalski.

Victoria walked over to Alex and whispered to her," Who's Ringtail?"

_Ringtail? _Alex questioned herself, until she understood who Victoria was talking about. "Oh, you mean King Julien. Skipper calls him Ringtail, since he has rings on his tail," she explained. "Anyways, he's the king of lemurs, who lives in the habitat next to ours."

"A king, huh?" Victoria echoed, widened her eyes and rubbing the bottom of her beak as if lost in thought.

Alex nodded, and turned her attention back to her father and boyfriend, trying not to worry about the new penguin. A heartbeat later, Skipper turned to the other penguins, and Alex took a step toward him.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

The leader looked her in the eyes. "Nothing important," he replied. "It doesn't have to do with us, so we don't have to worry about it."

"But Skippah," protested Private," we have to do something! We just can't stand by and let whatever is happening in–"

But Skipper interrupted him, telling him to be quiet. The young penguin seem to take his words to heart and looked down at his feet, shutting his beak tightly and putting his flipper on it.

Alex looked at her father, then at Private, and then back again, confused. Before she could say anything, Skipper added," Again, it's nothing. And besides, if I was thinking about helping, there's no way to get there." He shrugged as if he couldn't careless.

"Actually, Skipper, there is a way," Kowalski said as he lifted his flipper, but Skipper grabbed it with his flipper and pushed it down, growling," No. There's no way to help them."

"Dad," Alex said," what are you talking about?"

Before he could reply, the hatch opened and a voice called from the platform," Hey, penguins! I need your help!"

Everyone turned around and looked up. Alex saw Julien looking down in the lair, Emily beside him. The ring tail lemur opened his mouth, about to add something, but just then his hand, which was on the very edge of the hole, slipped, causing him to fell into the lair. Emily reached follow to try to catch him; she grabbed onto his tail, but Alex could see that she was having trouble holding onto the king and that her hand was slipping. Emily tried to pull her king back up, but her feet got to close to the edge.

Alex gasped and ran to try to save the king from the fell, but she was too slow. She watched in horror as the two lemurs fell onto the hard floor, landing on each other. Julien groaned as he gently pushed Emily off him. Then he stood up, shaking his head, looking as if he forgot about the pain, but Alex had to make sure if he was okay.

"Are you alright, my king?" she asked, looking him up and down.

He didn't answer though, and he ran right past her without even noticing her, going straight to Skipper. The king forgot to jump over the steps, though, and he crashed right into the lead penguin. Alex winced and closed her eyes, opening them again a moment later, wondering what was wrong with her king.

Skipper pushed the ring tail lemur off him; as he stood up, anger flashing in his dark, sapphire-blue eyes. "What is the matter with you, Ringtail?" he snapped as he watched the lemur get to his feet.

Julien fell to his kness a heartbeat later, looking at Skipper eye to eye as he put his hands on the penguin's shoulders. "You have to help me! Please, please _please!"_

Skipper pushed the lemur away from him and said in a hard tome," No, Ringtail."

"But why?" Julien pressed as he jumped back at his feet, crossing his arms and staring down at the penguin. "My home sweet home is in serious danger! You need to help me!"

"I don't _need_ to do anything!" Skipper retorted as he turned his back on the lemur, and started walking away. His hatred of the lemur was obviously getting the better of him.

Alex ran in front of her father, making him come to a halt. "But, dad," she said in a low voice," I thought you and the others helped any animal in trouble."

"Not when they are lemurs," the leader growled, glaring at the king.

"But Skippah," added Private as he walked over to them," we've helped them before."

Skipper looked at him, then at Alex, and back again. He sighed and murmured," I suppose I can't sit back and let the lemurs on Madagascar get kill one by one, no matter my feelings toward Ringtail."

Suddenly Emily took a step closer and asked," How did you know Madagascar is in that kind of trouble?"

Skipper turned to her and replied," Rico, Private, and I were following you and Ringtail around the zoo, but after we heard you tell Ringtail that Madagascar was in trouble and that an evil cat had took over the island, making every lemur scared to death of him and that he was killing lemurs, we came back here before you saw us."

"You mean you were spying on us?" Julien stepped forward. The upset that was in his voice was replace with anger when he heard what Skipper said.

"What we do is for the best," Skipper said calmly. "I had a feeling that we had to watch you for a little while." He glanced at Emily, and Alex could see that he didn't trust her one bit. The young penguin looked at Victoria for a moment, remembering her distrust of her, then turned back to her father.

_I suppose that's something we have in common: we both having trust issues._

"Well, will you help us?" Julien pleaded as if he forgot his anger about the penguins spying on him and Emily.

Skipper sighed and nodded. "Yes, Ringtail. We'll help you. But you have to remember," he added," this is _your _battle, not ours, so if it gets to nasty, you'll have to deal with it yourselves." He rubbed the bottom of his beak as if lost in thought. "But how will we get to Madagascar?"

"I have an idea, Skipper," Kowalski spoke up as he limped toward his leader. "But we have to ask the chimps for help."

Everyone turned to him, and Skipper nodded once more. "Let's go," he declared as he walked to the ladder. "We can't waste any time." The other animals followed him, but Alex saw that Kowalski was still limping pretty bad, so she took him aside before he could go up the ladder.

"Are you fit to do anything?" she asked, aware that there was deep concern in her voice.

"I'm fine," he assured her.

Realizing that her boyfriend wouldn't admit if he was in serious pain, Alex sighed and nodded. "Alright," she murmured. "But if I see you limping any worse, I'll tell Skipper that you need to sit this one out."

They held each other gazes for a few moments; Alex was aware that they were they ones in the lair now.

Kowalski was the first one to look away. "Okay," he agreed. "Let's go topside, before they wonder what happened to us."

Alex smiled and kissed her boyfriend on the cheek, having to push herself upwards on her tiptoes, so she could get to Kowalski's face. Then they followed the others out of the lair.

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**I'll have another chapter up tomorrow!**


	7. Traveling

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! So far I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Dark, and all his cats! And of course I do not own the song that is mentioned in this chapter!**

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"Here." Julien dropped the fruits he was carrying in front of Skipper, who looked up at him, but instead of saying anything, the leader bent down, picked up a grapefruit, studied it, and then nodded to Julien; the ring tail lemur just stared at him, knowing he was telling him to do something but not wanting to talk for some reason. The king blinked slowly.

Skipper sighed and murmured," Thanks, Ringtail. You can go now." He dropped the fruit on top of the pile.

Julien stayed where he was as he looked around for his penguin subject.

The zoo animals were just outside the shipping and receiving area, and Julien could see the sun coming up over the buildings. The king fought against a yawn. They had been up all night, getting ready for their journey.

Just then Emily appeared at the entrance and started walking toward Skipper. She, too, carried fruit, which she dropped at Skipper's feet. A heartbeat later, Maurice and Mort came back, also holding some fruits.

When they got to Skipper and dropped their load in front of the leader, the penguin said," I think that will be enough." A large pile of fruit was in front of his feet now. The four lemurs had gone to the reptile house to collect all the fruits they could.

Julien had suggested that they should try and steal some bananas from the gorillas, in which Maurice gasps, while Mort jumped up and down, declaring that that was a great idea, before adding that his king always had great ides. Emily, however, had just stared at Julien, then shrugged and said that she had no idea where anywhere anything was, so she was just gonna follow the other lemurs.

After that, they pasted the reptile house, heading to Bada's and Bing's habitat. Julien knew that he couldn't get caught, though, so he hid, while trying to make his way to a big pile of bananas. It wasn't until he was almost there that the gorillas knew he was in their habitat. They had turned to him, grabbed him, lifting him to their face. One of them held onto his head, hurting him very badly. Julien was well aware that if they squeeze him just a little, they could easily smash his head, killing him. Strangely, he didn't try to get away; he just stared at the two much larger animals.

"What's yous doing in our habitat?" the gorilla that was holding onto to Julien demanded as he looked at the king.

But before Julien could say anything, the other on said to his friend," Let's teach this lemur a lesson."

The gorilla agreed, then used his other hand to grab onto Julien's tail, stretching it downward, while he stretched his head upward, aiming the lemur toward a habitat on the other side of the zoo. Pain shot through Julien. Then the huge animal let go off Julien, sending him flying across the zoo.

The next thing the king knew he was laying in a tree. He stood up, rubbing his head, then looked down, realizing that he was in Joey's habitat. Luckily the kangaroo was fast asleep. Julien looked and saw that the sun was starting to come up. He had to get out of here, before he woke up.

The ring tail lemur had walked to the end of the branch he was in, jumped onto the wall, and hopped to the ground. As soon as his feet had touched the ground, the other lemurs appeared.

There had been worry in Emily's eyes, and she had asked if he was okay. Although his whole body was hurting, he had said that he was fine. Then he had said maybe it was a good idea to just collect the fruits from the reptile house after all.

All this had only happened a few minutes ago. Since that time, the sky has grown even lighter and the sun was visible as it slowly inched its way across the sky.

When Julien thought about what happened a few minutes early, he noticed that his whole body still ache, but he tried to hide it from the others.

Just then a thought popped in his head. He looked around, hoping the others didn't need his help. Skipper, Private, and Rico were busy loading a crate with the fruits the lemurs had brought them, while Maurice and Mort stood around, looking restless and uneasy. He even saw the new penguin looking around as if she wasn't sure what to do. He had noticed her talking to Skipper earlier, but he didn't hear what they were talking about.

Emily walked over to Julien and asked," You okay?"

Julien nodded. "I'm fine," he replied. "But I need to go get something from my habitat. I'll be back as fast as I can. Make sure no one is leaving without me."

Emily nodded as the ring tail lemur turned around and dashed off, passing Kowalski and Alex, who was just walking through the entrance.

"I think you should stay here," Kowalski said to Alex. He was carrying a box, and it was making him unsteady, but he made sure he watched where he was going. Besides, he was too worried about Alex to notice the weight in his flippers. He glanced at her; she was looking straight ahead, and it was a while until she replied.

"I can handle anything you and the others can." Her voice was filled with annoyance, but Kowalski could see a sparkle of amusement in her eyes as she stared ahead of her.

But the strategist didn't have time to reply to her, for Skipper appeared in front of them; the leader took the box from his teammate and sat it down. He opened it, and the smell of fish touched Kowalski's nose. He suddenly felt hungry, but he knew he couldn't eat any just yet. This was for the journey.

"You got the tags?" Skipper asked.

Kowalski nodded and handed his leader the two tags.

"Did you set out the penguins toys, and make the robot lemurs?"

Once again the tall penguin nodded.

"Good," Skipper murmured as he pulled the box over to a crate, calling to Rico, who quickly joined his leader. The penguin order something, and crazy one coughed up a crowbar. Skipper opened the crate and started pouring the fish inside it. Then he jumped to the ground and slapped the shipping tag on the side of it. Then he ran over to another crate and put the other tag on it.

"Alright," he announced as he turned to the other animals. "I think we're all set."

"Wait!" a voice yelled from behind Kowalski.

Kowalski turned around and saw Julien running toward his friends. The ring tail lemur came to a halt, panting.

"Ringtail?" Skipper questioned, sounding confused. "Where did you go?"

"I-I had to g-get my music thingy," the king panted as he held up his MP3 Player.

"Okay," the leader said slowly. Then he shook his head and went on to the rest of the animals," You lemurs are going to be in the crate with the fruits, while the rest of us are going to be in the other one."

"Why did we need to get the fruits anyways?" Maurice asked.

"The humans can't know that we left, so we had to fill the crates up with something that they could ship to Madagascar," Kowalski explained, feeling proud that he was so smart. Everyone turned to him as he went on. "That's why I put toy dolls in our habitat, and I made robot lemurs and put them in your habitat. No human should know that we left."

Everyone seemed to understand now, so Skipper said," Come on, let's get in the crates, before Alice or someone else comes by."

The penguins and lemurs split up, going to the crate they were to suppose to travel in.

Kowalski saw the three lemurs hopped into their crate without hesitation, but Julien turned to the penguins before joining his subjects. He glanced down at his MP3 before looking at Alex. Kowalski knew what he wanted to ask, and he decided to just leave it between the king and Skipper.

"Hey, Alex," the lemur began," you want to ride with us, so you can tell me what songs are on this?" He pointed to his music player.

Alex opened her open to reply, but suddenly Skipper pushed her farther into the crate, right into Kowalski. He smiled shyly at her and murmured," I'm sorry, but you know how your dad can be." He kissed her on the cheek, hoping to cheer her up. She smiled at him, but she still seemed a little upset. She didn't say anything though.

"She isn't going to ride with you, Ringtail," Skipper growl. "She's not your subject."

Before Kowalski could stop her, Alex took a step toward her father. "I'll ride with you and the others, but let me help the king find a song when he needs me to," she begged.

Skipper looked at his daughter for a long moment, before sighing. "Fine. Whatever. I don't care." And with that, he jumped in in the crate.

"Could you find me a song now?" the king asked.

"Of course," Alex replied as Julien handed her the MP3 Player.

Kowalski sighed as he slipped farther into the crate, unable to see his girlfriend taking orders from that lemur. Finally she joined her friends, and darkness engulfed them as Rico slid the top over the crate. Now all they had to do was wait.

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"Your Majesty?" a soft voice spoke in Julien's ear, breaking into his sleep. "Come one, wake up. I think we're almost there."

The king blinked open his yellow eyes and saw Emily staring down at him. Julien got up and stretched, yawning as big as he could. He blinked a few times, but he could hardly see anything. The crate was dark, but little light got in from cracks in the woods. He turned to Emily and asked in annoyed voice," Are you sure we're almost there? I was having the most wonderest dream of all time!" He calm down when he saw Emily's eyes widened with surprise. "Sorry," he muttered. "I was just dreaming that I was still king of Madagascar."

"You miss that, don't you?" Emily whispered, looking Julien in the eyes.

"A little," he replied, turning away from her. "But," he added as he glanced at the female lemur," I hate to say this, but I'm pretty sure I can't stay once we defeat Dark." He didn't mention why he didn't want to stay; he had grown to love New York, and he felt like he would miss the animals of the zoo if he left, including the penguins.

Wanting to take his mind off of everything, he picked up his MP3 Player, and turned it on. A bright light lit up the crate, causing all the lemurs to cover their eyes. When he could open his eyes again, Julien turned to the music player screen, but he quickly felt the familiar frustration. He hated that he couldn't read! Then he remember what Alex had said before they left.

He stood up and pushed the top off. He looked around and saw there were lots of other crates on this boat, and the waves were making the boat go up and down, kind of making Julien feel sick, but he didn't notice that as he jump out of the crate and onto the one he knew the penguins were in. He opened it and looked down at them.

"Hey, Alex," he called to her. "Can you find me a song?" He dropped into the box, landing beside the female penguin; Alex smiled and took it from him.

"Yes, my king," she said as she began to go through the songs.

As she found Julien a song, the king noticed Skipper glaring at him. Then he spotted Kowalski rolling his eyes and the smart penguin announced," I'm going to go see where we are." He jumped out of the crate, disappearing.

A touch on his arm made Julien turn back to Alex, who handed him the MP3 Player.

"This is a good song, Your Mastery," she told him. "I think you'll like it. I've heard it before." She laughed slightly as she looked up at the lemur.

"What is it called?" he asked.

"_Twist My Hips_," Alex replied, smiling at the tall lemur.

Julien put the headphones on and pushed the play/paused button, causing the song to start echoing inside his head. At first it was only music, and it made Julien want to start dancing, but he had little room, so he had to force his body to stay still as he sat down in between Alex and Victoria; he noticed the new penguin glancing at him and scooting away from him, but he didn't pay any attention to her.

Then words started playing, and he really liked them. He made a mental note to remain himself when this was all over to listen to this song when they got back home and dance to it.

The song went on, but just then Kowalski appeared, looking down at his leader. His beak started moving, reporting something to Skipper, but all Julien could hear was the song. He felt something nudge him, and he turned around to see Alex looking at him, singling to him to take off the headphones, so Julien did.

"He said he can see Madagascar, my king," she announced as soon as he could hear.

When he was done turning the MP3 Player off and heading it to Alex, the ring tail lemur jumped out of the crate and started making his way to the front of the boat, dodging boxes but also using them to hide from humans that roamed the area. When he got to the front, he looked out and saw a tiny speck. A warm feeling flooded over him as he half closed his eyes and muttered one word: "Home."

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**I'll have another chapter up later today!**


	8. A Dark Horizon

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! So far I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Dark, and all his cats! Two more own characters are announced in this chapter! :)**

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The stench of crow-food hit Weasel's nose as Tiger, the dark striped tabby tom, pushed aside the leaves that surrounded this area of the island. This was the first time Weasel and Lilian had been here ever since Dark had gained power over the lemurs.

Weasel remember what this place looked like when Julien was here; there had been vines that had been covers in different kinds of colorful flowers. Everyone sang and danced. There had been lights, casting shadows of the lemurs on the leaves and rocks that surrounded. Now the area looked nothing like that. There was no singing, no dancing, no lights, no beautiful flowers. The air smelled of death and rotting food, and the ground was littered with fruits and even some bodies of the dead lemurs that tried to stand up to Dark.

Before the cats had arrived on the island, there were pretty of food, but now a lemur would be lucky to have a single sniff of fruit. All the food went straight to Dark and his cats and the lemurs that had turned traitor, who actually find enjoyment in tormenting the ones they've known all their lives. Weasel thought that was the sickest thing ever. He didn't understand why anyone would want to just suddenly turn against their friends and kill them.

The other two cats, a gray-and-white tom and a big white tom, followed close behind Weasel and Lilian, but when Tiger flicked his tail, the cats stalked away, heading toward the shadows and disappearing a heartbeat later. There were no other animal in the clearing but Weasel and Lilian and the two cats that had escorted them here.

Tiger opened his mouth and let out a short yowl. Then the clearing fell silent once more.

It was a few moments until a shadow started walking toward them, its own hidden behind the leaves. Then a cat stepped out behind a rock and glared at his visitors.

"What is it, Tiger?" growled the black-and-gray tom, drawing his lips back, revealing sharp teeth. One of his cut ears twitched as he stared at the two cats. His whole fur was criss-crossed with scars, and his muscles rippled under his bedraggled pelt.

Weasel widened his yes. It was frightened every time he saw Dark. He looked tough and mean, and the way he looked was exactly how he was; Weasel had found that out when the black-and-gray tom had killed his parents.

Tiger stepped forward and dipped his head to his leader. "We found these two talking about someone coming to save them." He flicked his tail to Weasel and Lilian.

Dark glanced at them and a purr sounded in his throat, but Weasel could tell he was mocking them. "You stupid lemurs," he growled as he stopped purring. "No one will make me stop ruling here. I would love to know who you would think could take me down though. I could do with a good laugh." His voice was harsh as he glared at the two lemurs.

To Weasel's horror, Lilian stepped forward and responded to the evil cat. "King Julien," she spat as she looked at Dark. "He will return, and when he does, you and your sorry of an excuse of cats will be driving out, you piece of fox dung!"

Dark's ears prickled with surprised as he stared at Lilian. "Sassy, aren't you? What's your name?"

Before she could reply, Weasel pushed her aside and said to Dark," Never mind that. If you are going to kill us, get it over with already."

"Oh, I'm no going to kill you." Dark sat down and wrapped his tail around his paws. "I have plans for you two." Weasel opened his mouth, about to ask him what he meant by that, but Dark got up and called into the shadows, and a heartbeat later a lemur stepped out. It looked just like Weasel, expect it was a female. Weasel widened his eyes as soon as he saw his sister.

"Elizabeth," Weasel spoke up before Dark could say anything, but she didn't look at him. She stopped in front of Dark and dipped her head to him respectfully.

"Take these two where the other prisoners are," Dark told her, in which she nodded in understanding.

Then the female lemur walked over to her brother and Lilian. Instead of saying anything to Weasel, she started pushing him and his friend forward, into the shadows.

They had to walk by some of the cats; they all glared at the two lemurs and hissed at them as Elizabeth pushed them onward. Weasel tried to glance at his sister, but every time he did, he would trip over something or step on a thorn, so he finally gave up and looked ahead of him as he ducked under a branch and stepped into a much smaller clearing than the one they had just came from.

The smell of sickness and death was stronger here; Weasel could see some lemurs curled up in a tight ball, while others were sitting in a corner, casting scared looks around. There were a few cats here, guarding the lemurs, so they wouldn't run away, if they could. Weasel could tell that most of these lemurs couldn't stand, even if force. He felt a pang of sadness. What had become of Madagascar?

Elizabeth pushed her brother forward, making him stumble, but Lilian helped him regain his footing. Then the two lemurs walked over to a corner where there was no cat. They looked around and saw that a few other prisoners had lifted their heads to look at the newcomers; Weasel noticed, with a cold dread, that some of them were looking at him with dull, glazed over eyes. It was obvious that these lemurs had given up all hope, but Weasel believed that Emily would come back with King Julien.

At the thought of his king, the black-and-orange lemur began to wonder where they could be. Emily had been gone for what seemed like weeks. Surely she would be back by now? Weasel didn't know how long it would take to get to New York; she could still be on her way there. Or maybe Julien could have refused to come back, saying that there was no way he was going to go to Madagascar, if it was a wasteland, over run by cats.

Then Weasel told himself to stop being so stupid. Of course Julien would agree to come back. He wouldn't hide while his friends were dying. When the fossa tormented the lemurs, Julien had stayed calm and came up with a plan to scared them off. It had worked, thanks to Alex the lion and his friends. Now the king would return and come up with another plan to drive out Dark and his followers.

Suddenly, a thought hit him, making him shiver as if he just fell into cold water.

Elizabeth, his younger and only sister, was one of Dark's followers. Would she been driven away, also, since she betrayed her friends? Weasel wondered if Julien would let her stay if she said how sorry she was, but he didn't know if she was sorry. The way she pushed her brother to this clearing with the other prisoners without even looking at him or showing a sign of regret in her eyes.

Elizabeth wasn't the only lemur to join Dark. There was a few more, ones that either loved to fight or ones that were probably scared that the cats would kill them, so they had no choice but join them. Weasel's tail flicked angrily when he realized that they did have a choice, but they had chosen the wrong decision, even if they did think it was for the best.

Trying not to think what's happening beyond this clearing, Weasel looked around, seeing that the cats were now huddled together, meowing quietly to each other, as each of them kept one eye on the lemurs.

Weasel stared at them for a few moments, until something hard stab into his side; he looked over at Lilian, who was staring at him with big, terrified yellow eyes. She was younger than he was, so it was his job to calm her down. Although they weren't related, he had thought of Lilian as a younger sister, especially after Elizabeth had betrayed him.

"It's okay," he whispered to her as he wrapped his arms around her, trying to comfort her with a hug. "We'll be fine, you'll see. King Julien will be back soon. Like you said, he'll have a plan."

"You really believe that, don't you?"

Weasel turned around, but he didn't see who had spoke, and he prayed that one of the cats didn't overhear him. They were already in big trouble. He relaxed when a gray lemur stepped out of the shadows, his ring tail flicking as he walked over to Weasel and Lilian.

"Oh, it's you, Patch!" Lilian breathed. Weasel had felt her stiffen when they had heard the voice, but now she relaxed. "You almost scared me of my fur!" Her eyes were soft as she stared at Julien's brother. "What are you doing here?" she added in a quieter voice.

"Same as you," Patch replied as he sat next to Lilian.

"You mean, you're a prisoner, too?" Weasel asked, shocked. "What did you do?"

Patch shrugged as he turned away. "Some of the rogue lemurs had told Dark that I was Julien's brother, so Dark had ordered his cats to find me and bring me to him." His eyes clouded with memory as he turned them back on his friend. "They found me hiding in the trees on the other side of the island. I had a feeling they were going to come after me, so I...hid." He sighed. "I'm nothing but a coward."

"No, you're not!" Lilian protested firmly but quietly. "I know there's lots of lemurs hiding from Dark and his bunch. If you were a coward, you would be like them." She pointed to a few lemurs that were curled up in a tight ball, whispering something under their breath as their eyes looked straight ahead, looking as if they were blind, but Weasel could see some of them cast worry glances at the cats, that were still talking amongst themselves.

"You're the bravest animal I know," Lilian went on to Patch, who was blinking slowly and thoughtfully. "You were the only, besides Julien and Maurice, who didn't freak out when you heard the word 'fossa'."

When she said that word, some of the lemurs lifted their heads, staring at her, but they didn't try to move. They blinked, then laid back down.

_Wow, _Weasel thought. _They must be seriously hurting or scar__ed__ if they didn't freak out when they heard fossa,_

Even though it's been a while since the last time they had trouble from the dog-like creatures, some lemurs still went crazy if they heard that word. Weasel thought that if someone said Dark really loud, all of them would jump up and start running around, even if they were tired or sick. He couldn't even imagine what would happen if the black-and-gray cat walked into the clearing. He glanced at the hole that seemed to be the entrance to the clearing, half expecting Dark to walk through any second, but he never came. Relief flood over Weasel as he turned back to Lilian and Patch.

Patch was looking at the female lemur, a smile on his face. But he turned away as he replied," I was scared like everyone else, but I guess I just...knew better." He sighed and added," My brother was the best king we ever had. Now he's gone, and it wouldn't be long, until we all we dead."

"Come on, Patch," Weasel pleaded, not wanting to see the lemur this way. He had almost always been positive, and seeing him giving up hope made Weasel wonder if these was any hope left. "He will be back. He loves Madagascar, and he won't let it be taken over. We just have to wait and try to stay alive until he gets here."

Patch stared at him with dull eyes, but he didn't have a chance to reply to him, for a cat was walking toward them. All three lemurs fell quiet as the cat came to a halt beside them. The cat didn't say anything though. He just sat beside them, glanced at them, then turned to look out across the clearing.

The lemurs sighed softly and sat down. Now they couldn't talk. Weasel looked up at the cat that was guarding them.

He was a dark gray tom was lighter gray spots all over his body.

Weasel took his eyes off of the cat and laid down, looking at the blue sky; branches were blocking his view. He wondered where Emily was and if she was coming back at all. She was far, far from this island. Maybe she had decided that it would be stupid to return.

_Please, sky spirits, _Weasel prayed as he looked at the sky, _watch over Emily, whether she's on her way here or in New York, staying with King Julien, but if they are coming back, please make it quick._

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**I'll have another chapter up tomorrow!**


	9. Returning Home

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats!**

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It was only when the horn of the boat grew fainter and fainter that Alex dared to open the crate. She stood up, standing on top of the pile of fish that was covering the box. She lifted her flipper until she felt the roof. It was too dark to see anything, so she had to use her other senses to detect what was going on. She pushed the top off and popped her head out, looking around as she turned in a complete circle.

The first thing she saw was another crate a few feet away. As she stare at it, the top flew off and Julien jumped out of it, hopping to the sand and looking around. A smile formed on his face as he scanned the island.

Alex turned to look at where the king was staring. She let out a surprised squeak when she saw a forest in front of her. She had never seen so many trees in one place. She jumped out of the crate and walked over to her king.

The other penguins and lemurs joined their friends, staring at the forest as well. Alex could see that the others had wide eyes, too, but the lemurs' eyes shined with happiness and excited, while Alex's father and his team's eyes showed uncertain. Alex glanced at her boyfriend, wondering what he was thinking. She could see that he had a determined look on his face, like he was ready to battle against these cats. She could also see pain twisted in his eyes.

_Was his foot still bother__ing__ him? _she asked herself in her mind.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a yowl that was coming from the forest. Everyone looked up as three cats walked out from the woods, their stomach touching the ground as they slowly made their way to the penguins and lemurs.

Victoria, who was standing beside Alex, looked as if she had just seen a ghosts. Alex could tell that she was tense as she stared at the cats, every muscle inside the penguin waiting for something to happen. Alex was confused. Why was Victoria staring at the cats that way? The young penguin looked at the cats as they came closer.

The cat in the lead was a pure white tom with scars on his flanks and spots of dried blood covered his snowy pelt. He had wild, mean green eyes, ones that seemed to look right through the animals that he was walking to. One of the cats behind him was a dark brown tabby she-cat with a cut eat, and the other one was a small black-and-white tom. All of them looked mean, so Alex began to wonder how evil Dark could be. Could he more worse than these cats? If he was, Alex saw no use in trying to save Madagascar. She couldn't say that out loud, not in front of King Julien and the other lemurs.

It felt like time stopped as the cats stalked over to the penguins and lemurs. Finally, the snowy cat came to a halt in front of Skipper, who had stepped forward to meet the cat. They looked at each other. The white tom pushed himself up to a higher height, but he stayed on all four paws as he glared at the penguin.

"What are you doing here?" he growled at Skipper. The penguin opened his mouth, but the cat looked pasted him, his eyes suddenly widening. "Victoria?" he breathed as he walked pasted Skipper.

The penguin lifted her head as everyone turned to her. Alex was confused. How did this cat know Victoria?

"Hello, Snow," she said calmly, keeping her eyes on the snowy-pelt cat. "It's been a long time."

"It sure has," the cat agreed, a hint of a growl in his voice as he dug his claws in the sand. "What are you doing here?" Snow flicked his tail crossly. "I thought we saw the last of you when you turned your back on us. You know Dark isn't going to be happy to see you, right?"

"Of course," Victoria said quietly. "But I did what I had to." She stared into Snow's eyes. "I thank you for what the Clan did for me though."

The dark brown tabby dared her teeth. "We shouldn't have let you in," she growled. "You turned against us!"

Anger flashed in Victoria's eyes as she stood her ground, but before she could say anything to the cat, Skipper ran in between them and demanded to the female penguin," You know these cats? You were once part of their group?"

"Yes," Victoria replied, looking past Skipper and at the snowy-pelt tom, glaring at him.

"But you're a penguin!" Private protested, his voice betraying his surprised. "And they are cats. Why would cats take in a penguin?"

"And didn't you say you came from a different zoo before you arrived at the Central Park Zoo?" Kowalski spoke up, limping to the youngest member of the team and turning suspicious eyes on Victoria.

"It's a long story," Victoria murmured, stepping away from Skipper and not looking at any of the penguins around her.

"It's between us and her, not your flightless birds and lame squirrels," Snow growled, glaring at Skipper.

Alex stared in horror as Julien stepped forward, demanding," Who are you calling a lame squirrel?"

Skipper rolled his eyes and pushed the ring tail lemur back as he face the white cat again. "Where is your leader?" He took a step toward the cat, making the creature back up.

It wasn't the white tom who responded. It was the black-and-white cat who spoke up. "Why do you want Dark?" He put his head to one side, but instead of hostility in his eyes like the other cats, he showed confusion and wonder. A hiss from the dark brown tabby made him crouch him, flattening his ears against his head as he looked up at her with fear in his eyes.

The snowy tom stepped forward, as if he suddenly got the courage to stand up to Skipper. He stared at the penguin, bearing his teeth at him as he arched his back, every hair on his pelt bristling. "How dare you come here, asking for our leader, fish-breath?" he growled.

"Fish-breath?" Skipper echoed angrily, while Rico growled at the cat and Private just glared at him. Alex heard Kowalski murmured something under his breath, but she didn't hear what; even she was insulted by the term, and she wanted nothing more than to attack him, but before she could, her father shouted," How dare you call me that!" Before the cat could reply, the lead penguin launched at him, quickly pinning him down and staring into his eyes. "Say that again, _snowflake!"_

Snow looked at him with hatred in his eyes, but, yet again, before he could say anything, Kowalski, Private, and Rico pulled their leader off of the cat. As soon as Skipper was off of the snow white cat, Rico walked over to the small group of cats and started growling under his breath. Then he started gagging, throwing up a sword.

Alex looked at the sword, wondering how he could have eat that...without cutting his insides. The blade was much bigger than he was. He pointed it at the cats, who was all backing up slowly, looking at the very sharp sword.

Before Rico could do anything with the sword, though, Julien walked over to him, taking the blade from him and throwing it in the ocean. The psychopath turned on him, and Alex was read to go over to protect her king from Rico if she had to, but Julien didn't wait to see how he would react. Instead, the ring tail lemur turned to the cats.

"I demand you to take me to your leader this instant!" the king ordered, his voice raising a little as he stomped his foot down and glared at the cats.

The snow pelted cat stared at him as if he was crazy. "And who do you think you are?" he snarled.

"I'm Kin–"

Before he could finish his name, Skipper ran forward, grabbing Julien by his mouth, making the lemur stop talking. Then the penguin whispered something to him, and Alex guessed that he was telling the ring tail lemur that it wasn't wise to tell them that he was the king.

Snow stepped forward and looked at Julien, up and down. His green eyes landed on Julien's crown. The cat narrowed his eyes and growled," You're the king that once rules over this island, aren't you?'

The penguins and lemurs looked at the cat; Alex was scared to know what would happen next. She guessed that everyone else felt the same way, for Victoria was hardly breathing. Private, who was on Alex's other side, was staring at the cats with wide dismayed eyes. Alex couldn't see what her father was feeling, for he was standing beside Julien, a few footsteps ahead of everyone else, staring at the cats, but she sensed that everyone was waiting for something to happen.

A heartbeat later, the white cat launched forward, sinking his teeth into Julien's neck, dragging him away from his friends. The ring tail lemur let out a scream as he tried to get free, but the cat was much stronger than he was. Then the other two cats joined their companion, the dark brown tabby grabbing onto Julien's tail with her teeth, while the small black-and-white tom crawled under him, picked him up off the ground. Then the three cats were running into the forest, carrying Julien away with them.

"Help me!" Julien screamed as the cats carried him away, soon disappearing into the woods, leaving the beach silent once more.

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**Please review! No flames please!**


	10. A Little Something About Victoria

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats!**

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"King Julien!" Maurice and Mort yelled, eyes wide.

Alex watched in horror as the cats ran off with her king, and she gasped when her father tried to run after them, but his team dashed in front of him, Kowalski telling him that it was useless to try to save him just now and that they need to come up with a plan. Alex wanted to run after the cats, too, and try to save King Julien, but she was frozen where she stood.

Then Emily stepped forward. "They won't kill him right away," she told them calmly; Alex was surprised that she was so calm. She would have thought that _Emily _would be the one to freak out the most, but of course she knew more about Dark than the rest of them did. "If anything, Dark'll probably only keep him as a prisoner right now, until he thinks of something worse to do with him."

Everyone turned to her.

"That's bad!" Maurice cried as he glanced at the forest. "We got to save him before they do kill him!"

Still Emily looked calm as she turned to the aye-aye. "But do you really think it's wise to just run into Dark's camp, declaring that we want King Julien back?"

Alex had to admit that she had a point. If they did that, every single one of them would get hurt or even killed. The female penguin looked at her boyfriend and the other two penguins, wondering if that was why they stopped their leader from going after the cats. Maybe they knew that it would be stupid to jump those cats, since they had friends all over the island that could come to their rescue. That would have ruined everything.

"Skipper, calm down," Kowalski said gently as he walked closer to his leader. "Maybe we should listen to Emily. She was here when Dark took over, so she knows more about him than we do."

The leader glared at him. "But that sorry of an excuse for a cat called us _fish-breath," _he spat, and Alex was surprised to hear how upset her father sounded, but then he sighed and murmured," Okay, You're right, Kowalski." He glared once in the direction of the forest, before walking to Emily.

Alex took a step that brought her to her father's side. She looked at the trees, and she heard a voice telling her to go after her king and get him back. She knew she had to stay put and listen to Emily though.

"Alright, Emily," Skipper went on, stopping in front of the female lemur. "So you have a better idea?"

The ring tail lemur nodded and began," I know where Dark is keep his prisoners, so maybe if we could get there, without being seen, we could get King Julien, then come up with another idea to save the island."

"But why don't we just come up with a plan to save the island first? Then save Ringtail, along with the other lemurs?" Skipper asked.

Emily looked at him, her eyes suddenly turning sad. "Because he may not be alive when we are done saving the island," she replied quietly. "If I know Dark, he will order his cats to go and get the king when we try to stop him, and he will kill him in front of us, just to show us that he isn't scare of us." She looked down and frowned. "That's why it's better to rescue him before we try to save Madagascar."

Everyone stared at her. Alex felt sick to her stomach, and she suddenly wanted to go home, but she knew they had a mission to do. They had to save the king and Madagascar from these evil cats before it was too late

_I hope it's not already too late, _she added to herself.

"Alright then," Skipper said in a commanding voice. "Let's get going then. Emily, led the way."

The lemur nodded and ran to the forest, hiding behind a tree. Alex started following her, but she then noticed that Skipper didn't move. She glanced over her shoulder and saw her father glaring at Victoria. Suddenly Kowalski appeared beside her, also staring at the lead penguin.

"Skipper?" he asked. "We have to go. Come on."

Skipper, however, didn't seem to hear him. He just kept glaring at Victoria. Alex noticed that everyone else had came back, watching the two penguins.

"Are you okay, Skippah?" asked Private, while Rico stared at his leader with worried eyes.

The lemurs glanced at each other, but said nothing; Alex could see that Emily was impatient though, clearly wanting to get to Julien as soon as possible.

The lead penguin didn't answer his teammate, he started walking toward Victoria, growling," So, you used to be part of this group? I knew I couldn't trust you. So tell me, Victoria, if that is even your real name, what made you leave them? And why did you join them in the first place?" As he spoke, he kept walking toward her, making her back up. Alex watched in dismay as her father confront Victoria. This wasn't the time for this! She wanted to yell at him, tell him to stop it, but before she could get a word out, Kowalski spoke up again.

"Skipper," he said to his leader in an urgent tone," this isn't the time. He got to get Julien back. Dark knows that we are here now. He'll probably send a patrol out here to get us. Then our plans will be ruined."

Skipper didn't turn to his strategist or even reply to him though. Instead he kept walking toward Victoria, who was still backing up until her feet touched the water.

"Alright, I'll tell you," the penguin sighed, holding up her flippers as if showing Skipper that she would fight him if she had to, but Skipper stopped and looked at her.

"Go on," the leader said, still eying her suspiciously.

"This all happened years ago," Victoria began, looking around at everyone. "Before I was catch by humans and was sent to live in a zoo. I had just escape from this wolf that had been bullying me for a while now, but I was badly hurt."

"Whoo! Whoo!" Skipper interrupted. "Why was a wolf bullying you?"

Victoria stared at him and then replied," That's another tale for another time." Then she went on with her story before Skipper could say anything else. "I was walking through a city, trying to hide. I was barely conscious though. I remember hiding from a human in an alleyway and then passing out. When I woke up, I was surrounded by cats." She sighed and looked down. "One of them was Snow–that pure white cat with blood on his pelt. He's always covered in blood; all of Dark's cats enjoys killing." She folded her flipper into fists and growled under her breath.

Alex heard a gasps from the lemurs, and she glanced at them to see Maurice staring at the forest, probably worried to death about his king. Then she turned back to Victoria.

The female penguin was silent for a few moments, until Kowalski told her," You can go on now."

"Oh right," Victoria said as she scratched her head, then her eyes clouded with pain as she murmured," I remember hearing one of the cats saying that they should kill me, because I was on their territory. Snow had shook his head and said that they should take me to their lead, which they did. When I met Dark, I was so scared of him, but I respected him."

"How do you respect someone that scares you?" Private asked in a disbelieving tone.

Victoria shrugged. "He's the kind of cat you had to respect or he'll kill you, but that's not why I respected him. He's just so powerful and strong and brave. Who wouldn't respect anyone like that? I mean, come on, he could defeat all four of you." She pointed to Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private in turned.

Rico snorted in disbelieve, while Kowalski rolled his eyes and murmured," Yeah, right." Private looked scared, but Skipper had a hard expression on his face.

"Are you doubting our techniques?" the leader asked.

"No," Victoria replied slowly. "I'm just saying that Dark is more powerful, and plus he has more cats than you could probably count."

Skipper held her gaze for a few moments, before muttering," Continue."

"Okay. So Dark decided take me in, and he had told me that he knew about herbs, so he nursed me back to health. Then I had decided to stay in the Clan. They taught me how to fight, how to hunt for myself, and Dark even taught me about herbs. Everything was going fine. I was getting used to–"

"Wait, if Dark is so evil, why did he take you in and nurse you back to health, instead of killing you?" Skipper questioned, narrowing his eyes.

Victoria looked annoyed, probably because everyone was keep interrupting her. "I had...kind of...begged him..." She looked down at her feet, using them to draw lines in the sand as she shifted them, looking awkward. "I told him that if he let me stay with him, I would always be loyal to him."

"But you weren't, correct?" Kowalski asked, sounding quite interested.

Before Victoria could reply, Emily spoke up. "Guys," the lemur said, and everyone turned to her. "Are we going to save King Julien or not?"

"In a minute, lemur," Skipper said, then turned back to Victoria. "Alright, then, go on."

"Like I said before I was interrupted...again," the penguin said, rolling her eyes. "Everything was going fine. I was getting used to being around so many cats. And then the day came. I still have nightmares about it. Sometimes I wish I could have done something to help them, but I panicked. I didn't know what to do."

"What happened?" Kowalski asked as he leaned closer; Alex was very interested now, too, wanting to know more.

"The day started like any other day," Victoria went on. "The warriors were out hunting, while the younger cats were looking after the elders. I was with Dark, in his den. He was telling me that it was time I became his second-in-command. He had told me if anything happened to him, I would become leader of his Clan. I had thanked him and then left the den to find Holly, who had become a close friend of mine, but before I could find her, the camp was attacked by a gang of dogs. Almost all the warriors were gone, but the others that stayed immediately started fighting the dogs. There were so many of them though...Then"–Her voice shock badly as she went on–"the unthinkable happened. I heard a scream coming from Dark's den, and when I got there I couldn't believe who it was." She shiver and lowered her eyes, not talking anymore.

"Who was it?" Private asked, his voice full of fear.

Victoria lifted her eyes, which were dull of sadness and hard memories. "It was Woolsey, that wolf that had been bullying me."

"Ah, Woolsey," Kowalski murmured, and everyone turned to him. "That name names 'victorious wolf'. The origin is Engligh."

Skipper glared at him, and the penguin shut his back, looking down at his feet. Alex felt sorry for her boyfriend, but she said nothing. It was a while until Victoria went on.

"Well anyways, when I saw him," she said quietly," I got scared. I didn't want him to know I was there. I wanted to save Dark, though. I was torn. I wasn't sure what I sure do, but I knew I didn't have time to think. I saw every cat was fighting, even the elders and the queens, after they hid their kits in the nursery. I wanted to help my friends, but I couldn't risk Woolsey seeing me, so I...ran." She bowed her head and let out a soft sigh. "A few days afterward, I was trying to find some food, but I had ran into a patrol. They said that they thought the dogs had killed me and dragged me away."

"Wait, wait." Skipper interrupted once more. "This Woolsey...he's a wolf, right?"

Victoria nodded.

"Why is he hanging with dogs?" the leader asked, putting his flippers on his hips.

"You have to remember, I was put a cat Clan, but I'm a penguin. And besides," she added," Woolsey's wolf pack was killed by humans, so he found the closest species to rule over, since he couldn't find anymore wolves. He always have to rule over someone." She shrugged.

"Never mind Woolsey," Kowalski said. "What happened with you and the patrol?"

"Oh. Well, they had told me that I had to come back and show Dark that I was still alive, but I refused. When they found out that I ran away, they thought I knew that Woolsey and his pack was going to attack. But I didn't, I swear!"

"We believe you," Private said, smiling.

A small smile formed on Victoria's face, which turned into a frown, when Emily asked," Is story time over?" The female lemur had sat down while the penguin had been telling her story, but now she stood up and knocked off the sand that clung to her fur. "We got to go get Julien before Dark does end up killing him!"

Skipper turned to Victoria and asked," Is there anything else you want to add?"

The penguin thought for a moment, then shook her head, her eyes shining with worry and uncertainly. Alex wondered if she was regretting telling everyone her background story.

"Alright then," Skipper said, turning back to Emily. "Led the way, again."

Emily quickly turned away and swiftly ran to the forest. She seemed very eager to get Julien back, and Alex felt the same way. She wanted to get to her king before Dark killed him! But thinking about the evil cat was making her scared, and she glanced around, spotting her boyfriend. She ran over to him, feeling the need to be with Kowalski. Then she realized he was still limping.

"You okay, honey?" she whispered to him.

He nodded, but Alex could see the pain in his eyes as they walked.

Alex moved closer to him as they continued to walk, until they were almost touching. Then she grabbed his flipper. She noticed that Victoria was waking behind, in a much slower place. Alex was so busy wondering what the female penguin was thinking that she didn't notice where she was putting her own feet, and she tripped over a stick. She fell to the ground, causing Kowalski to fall as well.

The smart penguin got up and helped Alex to her feet.

"Are you okay?" he asked her as he dusted the sand off of her; he didn't even try to knock off the sand that was covering his belly.

"Yeah, I guess," Alex replied. "It's just the story Victoria said was sad and scary."

"I know," Kowalski murmured. "I'm actually wondering why Woolsey was after her," he added quietly as they followed their friends. "A wolf never goes into the city. Why would Woolsey go into a city just to attack a Clan of cats?"

Alex tried her hardest to answer that question, but she couldn't. She glance once more at Victoria, quickly looking ahead of her again, so she wouldn't trip over anything else. She had a feeling that Victoria didn't tell them everything.

_But everyone has secrets. I suppose there's some things that she whether keep hidden, hoping one day they will stop haunting her. I just hope she learns to trust us enough to tell us everything eventually._

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**Please review! No flames please!**


	11. What Has Become Of Madagascar

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats!**

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The white tom pushed Julien through the leave wall, without even open it. The ring tail lemur stumbled inside the clearing, losing his balance, and he fell to the ground. His neck and tail were still hurting, and he was sure that he had bite marks on them, though he really didn't care about the pain. He glanced around, his eyes wide and his mouth opened in a silent gasps. Dark has destroyed his beloved home! The area was dark and miserable, instead of the way it was before Julien left. The king suddenly felt a flash of fury. How dare Dark do this to Madagascar? That cat would pay _big time!_

_ I shouldn't have left, _he thought as he looked down. _If I didn't leave, Dark would never have gained power._

As he began to think about Dark and what had become of Madagascar, still on the ground, he saw a shadow move around the rocks. He looked up, his yellow eyes widening even more when a huge black-and-gray tom walked into the light. The cat padded over to the lemur and his three warriors. His icy-blue eyes looked into Julien's, making the king crawl backwards, but he ran into something. Glancing up, he saw the dark brown tabby glaring down at him, her lips drawn back to reveal sharp, yellow teeth. He quickly crawled away from her, on his hands and knees, but the black-and-gray tom had came even closer, and Julien found himself laying under the icy-blue stare once more.

"And who is this?" Dark growled, lowering his head so he looked Julien eye to eye. "I haven't seen you around."

Fear made Julien unable to reply.

The snow pelted cat took a step toward his leader and responded," He's the former king here."

As soon as he heard his warrior say the word king, Dark's eyes filled with hatred, and a hiss escaped his mouth. He glared at Julien. "What are you are doing back here, mouse-brain?" the cat growled. "I'm not sure what kind of decisions you've made in your life, but coming back here may be the biggest mistake you will ever make." He looked up at his warriors and ordered," Take him to the other lemurs. I'll deal with him later." He turned his back on the animals and walked off into the shadows.

When their leader gave them the order, the two bigger cats stated pushing Julien forward, while the other one walked a few mouse-lengths behind them, giving the ring tail lemur a few glances. Though the cat's eyes were almost unreadable, Julien knew that they weren't friendly by the way the small black-and-white tom's pelt was bristling and his lips were drawn back a little as if he was giving Julien a warning.

Julien let the white tom and the dark brown tabby push him away, through the bushes that surrounded the clearing and into the jungle. Not long after they left the area where they met Dark, the dark brown tabby turned to the smaller cat and meowed," You can go now, Badger. You can find your littermates and get something to eat."

The black-and-white tom nodded and started padding away, calling over his shoulder as he went," Thank you, Ebony." Then he went through a bush, disappearing from sight behind the leaves and branches.

Not paying attention where he was walking, still staring after Badger, although he couldn't see the small cat anymore, Julien was surprised when he found himself laying on the ground. He pushed himself up, but pain shot through him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that he had walked right on a log that had a small hole on the side of it; the king's foot was stuck in the hole. His foot burned with pain as he tried to pull it out, but it was too jammed to just slip it out. He sighed and gave up, hoping this would caused the cats to just leave him here and not take him to the other prisoners.

Instead of going away, though, the two cats, exchanged an amusement glance. Then they walked over to him, the white tom grabbing until Julien's hand with his teeth. The sharp teeth hurt his hand, but it wasn't anywhere near the pain he felt in his foot. Ebony walked to the log and wrapped her tail around it. After one more glance, the two cats started pulling away from each other. A new kind of pain hit Julien. He let out a loud scream as the cats stretched him.

A few heartbeats later, the ring tail lemur felt his foot losing, and another moment, he was soaring across the trail, landing right on top of the white tom, who pushed him off, growling under his breath.

The king jumped to his feet, immediately lifting his foot when pain shot through him. It was a few moments before he could put his foot down without it hurting. "Thanks!" he said to the cats, smiling, but they just stalked by him without a word. Sighing, he followed them.

Finally they came to a much smaller clearing, and as soon as they came to the edge of it, a putrid smell hit Julien's nose, and he widen his eyes when he saw what was in front of him.

Some lemurs were curled up in a tight ball on the side of the clearing, while others were sitting in the middle, looking at the cats that guided them. There were some that laid motionless, and with a cold shock Julien realized that they were dead. A sharp, soul smell was in the air, and Julien thought it would make him throw up. But before he could do anything, the white tom and Ebony pushed him in the clearing, making him stumble a little, but he managed to keep his balance before falling on his face.

The live lemurs looked up as the king walked into the light. Some of them seemed to recognized the ring tail lemur almost at once, but others had to stare at him for a few moments before it came back to them, but none of them got up and welcomed him back. They stayed where they were, a few glancing at the cats, who all had turned when Julien came into the clearing.

Snow walked over to his fellow cats, while Ebony stayed with Julien, probably making sure the ring tail lemur didn't run off.

_Like I could, _Julien thought crossly. _There's too many cats around here for me to get away without anyone seeing me._

The snowy tom came to a halt in front a dark gray-and-white she-cat and meowed something to her. Then she shot a glare at Julien, who guessed that Snow told her that he was once king here. The other cats looked at him in an unfriendly way as well, and some of them hissed at him, or bared their sharp teeth at him. Some even fell into a crouch and started walking toward him, spitting. Julien took a step or two backwards, realizing that these cats wanted nothing more but to jump on him and rip his throat open. He ran into something, and he turned around and saw a huge ginger tom towering over him, his foul breath making Julien chock. He was sure the cat was about to jump on him, but suddenly a yowl split through the air.

"Stop!" The dark gray-and-white she-cat padded over to the other cats and planted herself between them and Julien. "That's enough," she hissed. "Dark didn't tell us to attack him. What would he say if he found out what we did to this lemur? He would certainly have our tails off."

The cats that surrounded forced their pelts to lay flat again as they took a few steps away from Julien, who was trying his best to hide behind the gray-and-white she-cat.

"But Holly," the ginger tom, who was behind Julien, protested," Dark will never know if we gave him a scratch or two." He glared down at Julien, and got in a battle crouch as if he was about to jump on the lemur.

Before he could move, Holly turned on him and blocked his way. "Think, Flame!" she growled, glaring down at him. "Dark _will _know if you hurt this lemur. _I'll _tell him myself!"

The two cats stared at each other for a long moment, until finally Flame sat up and dipped his head, taking a step back as he bowed his head.

It was a few more moments until Holly turned her head around to stare at the other cats. "No cat is to hurt _this _lemur," she told them, pointing at Julien. "Not unless Dark tells you to. But I have a feeling he would want to deal with this lemur himself." She walked past Julien, her tail touching his shoulder as she padded by. She went to where she was sitting before, in the middle of the clearing.

The other cats went to go sit beside her, but most of them still looked at Julien with hostile eyes. A tabby-and-white she-cat walked over to Julien and started pushing him to the other side of the clearing, to where the trees where the thickest. She put her tail in front of him, singling him to stop and sit down, so he did, seeing no point in arguing. He was relieved that the cats didn't kill him, but he still felt in danger. He looked down at his feet; then he heard a very familiar voice call to him.

"Julien!"

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**Please review! No flames please!**


	12. A Rescue Mission

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats!**

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It seemed like they were walking forever as they made their way though the forest, and Alex was tired of walking. She could see that everyone else was too. Mort was falling behind and she saw that Maurice was matching his pace to keep the little lemur company. Alex noticed misery in Mort's eyes and guess he was worried about his king.

The penguin team was following Emily with no problem though, as if they could walk for hours. Victoria, who was waddling beside Alex, was clearly out of breath; she wondered how much farther til they got to where the cats where keeping Julien.

She ran to catch up with Emily. "Hey!" she called out, and the lemur turned to her, not stop walking though. "How much farther?" she asked.

"Not far at all," she replied. "It's just past those trees." She pointed to a bunch of trees a few feet away.

Skipper came to a halt and everyone stopped beside him. "We need to come up with a plan," he decided. "I'm sure Dark has cats guiding the lemurs so we can't just walk in there and rescue them."

Nodding, Kowalski said," We could get someone to distract them while we sneak in there and get as many as we can."

His leader seem to be thinking about this while Rico and Private nodded their agreement. Alex felt pride in her smart boyfriend. Suddenly there was a scream behind them and something ran past them in a blur and vanished into the bushes. Alex was confused until Maurice yelled," Mort!"

Wide eyed, Skipper turned to the aye-aye and asked," What the hell just happened?"

"Mort just scream,' I got to save the king' and ran off. He's going to get himself killed!"

"We have to get him back before the cats notice we're here!" Private exclaimed.

"I think it's too late for that," Kowalski murmured darkly. "I'm sure they would have heard him screaming and dashing into the bushes like some wild animal."

Skipper glared at him but when he spoke it was to everyone. "We still need to try to get him back. Come on!"

Quickly they all ran after the little lemur, following his visible trail of smashed of leaves and bushes. Soon a clearing came into sight and to Alex's relief Mort stood beside a tree, staring down at something that she couldn't see at first, but when she walked closer she could see a bunch of lemurs, some curled in a tight ball, some lying motionless, and some staring at nothing, while a few cats stood guard. Alex was glad to see that none of them noticed that Mort was watching them.

Then she noticed what he was staring at: a ring-tail lemur with a clown on his head. Julien was talking to a lemur who looked just like him but a little shorter. Two other lemurs hung off to the side: One had an orange front side and a black back side, and the other one was a black-and-gray ring-tail just like the other two but smaller and younger.

Alex glanced down at Mort and saw that he was breathing heavily. He must be worried sick about his king and she knew he did crazy things when he was worried so she grabbed him before he could race down there and expose them all. She was worried about her king too, but she knew they couldn't just run into the clearing without a plan.

Just them the rest of the animals joined them and looked down at the clearing.

"Well it looks like the cats doesn't know we are here," Skipper decided, glaring at Mort. "Do you want us to all die?"

"I just want to save King Julien!" he protested, wriggling out of Alex's grip.

"We will save him," Skipper declared.

Alex waddled to Kowalski and saw him still favoring one of his foot. "Does it still hurt?" she asked, wishing he would just tell her the truth because she could see the pain bright in his eyes, but he just waved the question away with his flipper and went to his ladder.

"We just need someone to distract all the cats while we sneak down there," the tall penguin informed his commanding officer, who nodded and turned to Private.

There was a look in the small penguin's eyes that told Alex that he knew he would be the one distracting them, but all he did was salute the lead penguin and waddle off. All the animals stood there in silence, watching the cats in the clearing. Alex gazed at the horrible screen in front of her, not believing that Dark was able to turn the beautiful island King Julien had told her so much about to this awful, foul smelling place.

Suddenly there was a loud call from the other side of the forest and all the cats in the clearing snapped their heads up. Even some lemurs looked up, but Alex noticed they had no strength to react to the strange noise. She felt a rush of panic. How were they gonna get them to run away with they don't even react to a strange noise?

Alex watched as the cats meowed something to each other and then two of them hurried to where the noise was coming from. She glanced at her father, seeing annoyance in his gaze that all of them didn't fall of the trap. He singled to Rico and Kowalski, and they seemed to immediately know what their leader wanted. They disappeared into the trees, also calling out, confusing the cats in the clearing.

"Come on," Skipper whispered, watching the cats closely. "Just get far enough away from the lemurs so we can get Ringtail..."

The rest of the cats turned in the other directions and padded over there, meowing to each other. Skipper nodded to Alex, but he put a flipper in front of the lemurs when they tried to follow the penguins into the clearing. Maurice tried to protest, closing his mouth when Skipper glared at him, seeming to understand that too many people could rat them out. Maurice held onto Mort as father and daughter slipped into the clearing, glancing over their shoulders to make sure the cats were still looking for the unknown sound.

Finally they got to where Julien was still talking to his friends. As soon as the lemur saw the penguins his eyes lit up and Alex could tell that he was about to shout something, but just in time Skipper dashed forward and closed his mouth.

"Shh!" He singled to where the others where waiting and started pulling the lemur away.

Julien turned back to his friends and pointed to the trees. Alex guessed he was telling them to come along. Slowly and cautiously the animals crossed the clearing, still keeping an eye on the cats. Alex shivered every time her eyes landed on one of the prisoners. She saw a pleading look in their eyes, and she felt her flippers fold into fists, imagining hitting Dark with them, seeing what all he's done to this island.

When they were out of the clearing and back with the others, Alex let out a huge breath, not realizing she had been holding it. She was glad that was over, but they still needed to save the island.

"Patch?"

Maurice's voice made Alex turn to the lemurs, and she saw Julien and the other lemurs surrounding the three newcomers. The aye-aye was talking to the male lemur that looked just like Julien but shorter. "Is that really you? How have you been?"  
A flash of anger appeared in the lemur's eyes. "Well just fine til Dark and his cats got here!"

"Yes," agreed the orange-and-black lemur. "Those cats must be stop!"

"And that's why we are here," Skipper spoke up, breaking into their conversation. "But we can't talk here." He turned just as his team came waddling out of the woods. He nodded to them. "Good job men." After they thanked him, he turned back to everyone else. "We need to get to the beach and discuss what we are going to do now."

Suddenly there was yowling from the clearing. "The king is gone!"

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**Please review! No flames please!**


	13. The Fight

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats!**

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As soon as Julien heard the yowling from the clearing, he started running around, but he didn't know where he was going. He just wanted to get far away from here, away from the cats that he knew would kill without question. He was aware that his old Madagascar friends were freaking out too, glancing around as if they expected cats to appear from the trees and attack them. Then he noticed that his brother was the only lemur who wasn't freaking out, but then he reminded himself that Patch was always the calm one and that he would try to make the lemurs stop going wild when the fossa was attacking.

The next thing the king saw was black-and-white, and then he was on the ground, staring up at the lead penguin. Skipper glared down at him, then barked orders at to his team to quiet down the other lemurs. The three penguins nodded and did as they were told. Julien got to his feet, dusting the dirt off him.

"So Skipper," Kowalski called to his leader. "What's the plan?"

There was crashing in the underneath and Skipper snapped his head around just as three cats ran out of the clearing. They quickened their pace once they spotted the animals.

"Run!" Skipper ordered, and everyone followed him.

Julien kept telling himself not to look over his shoulder, but before he could stop himself he glanced backwards and saw the cats on their tails. He then noticed that the smart penguin was falling behind, and that Alex was keeping pace with him.

"It's his hurt foot!" she called up to her dad. "He can't run on it!"

"I'm fine!" Kowalski snapped, but just then he tripped over a fallen log, causing him to fall on his face.

Instantly Private and Rico went back to their friend's side, helping him to his feet and trying to run with him, but the extra weight was slowing them down. Julien noticed that Alex wasn't going leave Kowalski's side. Glancing at Skipper, the ring tail lemur saw annoyance in his eyes as he looked back. The cats were almost upon them!

"We have to stop and fight!" Skipper declared, coming to a halt. He got into a fighting position, and Private and Rico joined him while Kowalski limped to a tree, apparently knowing he was in no state to fight. Alex went over to join him, while the new penguin, Victoria, joined the group and also got into a fight position.

As the penguins got ready to fight off the cats, the lemurs got in a circle. "Should we help them?" Patch asked. "I'm not sure about you, but I don't know the first thing about fighting."

Lilian, Emily, and Weasel was nodding, while Maurice said," But we got to do _something! _Remember, this is our home. We can't just sit back and let the penguins take care of it." Turning to the king lemur, he went on," We need to fight along side the penguins."

"But fighting sounds hard and painful!" Julien protested in fear as he watched the cats approached them slowly now as if they knew that was more threatening.

"They've helped us many times," Maurice pointed out. "They are helping us _right now! _Now is our turn to help them!"

Julien groaned some more, til finally he said," Ugh, fine!" He looked down at little Mort. "Okay, Mort! Go help the penguins!" He kicked the lemur at the cats and watched as he landed on the face one of the cats. The cat growled at Mort, who jumped off the cat and ran back to Julien, hiding behind his feet. "You're no help, Mort," the king told him, glaring down at him.

"Stop messing around, Ringtail!" he heard the lead penguin call to him. "We are trying not to get killed over here!" Then he heard a grunt from Skipper.

He turned around and saw that the penguins were already being attack by cats. He watched as a cat tried to jump on Skipper, but he ducked and then kicked another one, sending him flying into the trees. He watched in horror as a cat was sneaking up on Private. Without even thinking, the ring tail lemur ran over to where the fighting was taking place, sliding under a cat to avoid his teeth and jumping over one before it could attack him. When he got to Private, he kicked the cat away, sending him right into a tree. He watched as the cat stumbled to his paws and vanished into the bushes.

The youngest member of the team turned wide eyes on Julien. "T-Thank you!" he stammered, but there wasn't time to say anything else. They ducked as two cats tried to jump on them. Spinning around, Julien grabbed their tails and turned himself in circles, making holes in the dirt with his heels and letting them go flying into the trees.

"Brilliant!" Private exclaimed.

Julien smiled. Maybe he knew a move or two after all. He looked around and was surprised to see that the other lemurs decided to join in the fighting. He watched as Lilian and Weasel circled around a cat, confusing it til it fell to the ground and crawled away. Then he spotted Mort jumping on a cat, while Maurice and Emily fought beside Skipper and Rico. For a moment he didn't see Victoria. Then he spotted her in a furious battle with a dark gray-and-white she-cat.

Then he noticed that they were talking to each other, but it clearly wasn't friendly.

"Why did you do it, Vic?" the cat growled, keeping her eyes on the penguin as she moved in a circle; Victoria also was going in a circle, watching the cat.

Almost forgetting the fighting going on around him, Julien watched the cat and penguin, not realizing he was holding his breath til he was lightheaded. He started breathing again as Victoria answered the cat.

"I already told you, I didn't know they were gonna attack," the penguin protested, her voice dangerously low.

Julien saw the cat roll her eyes in disbelief. "Dark almost died that day," she hissed, crouching down as if getting ready to jump on the penguin. "But luckily I was there to save him. That's when he made me his second-in-command." Before Victoria could say anything else, the dark gray-and-white cat jumped on her, pinning her down. Julien could see that the cat whispered something to her, but they were too far away for him to hear what it was.

He watched in horror as the cat opened her mouth and started to sink her teeth into her throat. He started to run to push the cat off the penguin, but another cat jumped on him and dug its claws into his back.

Then a growl from above made everyone in the clearing freeze. "Enough!"

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**Please review! No flames please!**


	14. The Deal

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats!**

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The growl made Skipper drop the cat he held in his flipper. He snapped his gaze up to see a black-and-gray tom, staring down at everyone. The lead penguin immediately knew it had to be Dark.

He watched as the cat slowly walked to the penguins, his eyes cold. He glanced around at the cats that laid on the ground when he finally got to Skipper.

"What did you do to my cats?" he asked, and there was a mocking tone in his voice that Skipper didn't like. The penguin just glared at him, stepping on a nearby cat's tail, causing the cat to yowl and run into the forest. He wanted to show the evil cat that he didn't scare him. He was surprise to see laughter in Dark's icy-blue eyes. "Oh it just got interesting."

"What do you mean?" Skipper took a step toward the cat, folding his flippers into fists, ready to attack him if he made a wrong move. He glanced behind him, seeing Private and Rico waiting for him to order them to charge. He smirk, knowing he could do anything with his team beside him.

The dark cat sat down, wrapping his tail around his paws. "I was getting bored," he confessed. "I was considering killing a few more lemurs then moving on. However," he added, getting up and walking around Skipper, flicking him with his tail," it looks like we have a new player in this game."

Skipper felt anger raise in him at his words. Before he could stop himself, he flung himself at Dark, punching his face and kicking him. He saw a flash of black-and-white, and then the other two members of the team was beside him, helping him attack Dark. Skipper thought maybe they could actually beat Dark and be able to give the lemurs back Madagascar.

Suddenly he was knocked sideways by Dark's tail, and when he turned to jump back into the battle he saw the cat rake his claws down Private's side while he kicked Rico into the bushes. Startled Skipper ran to where Private fell and flipped him onto his back, examining his bloody side. He felt a new kind of anger overtake him, but he stopped himself from jumping on Dark.

The cat was glaring down at the penguins, laughter in his eyes. "Stupid birds," he growled. He walked past Skipper to where his cats stood, and for the first time Skipper noticed Victoria was with them. He was shocked to see that she had bleed holes in her neck. _Did I miss something?_

He didn't have time to worry about Victoria though. He looked down at Private, who was barely conscious now. He looked up to see Kowalski and Alex staring at him with huge eyes. "Find something to clean the blood!" he ordered, and his daughter turned into the woods in a heartbeat, only to stop when a cat appeared and growled at her.

Skipper glared at Dark. "Let her find something to clean the wound!" he snapped.

The cat held the penguin's gaze for a long moment, til finally he flicked his tail and the cat blocking Alex's way moved. She disappeared into the woods, coming back a moment later with cobwebs. Her father pressed them against the wound and they instantly turned red from the young penguin's blood.

"Is he going to die?" Alex breathed, shifting her feet and not taking her eyes off of Private, who was now out cold.

Skipper shook his head. "Not if I have anything to do about it," he growled, removing the cobwebs. "Get me some more." Alex nodded and did as she was told.

Dark suddenly appeared beside the lead penguin. "I hate to interrupt this...whatever this is–"

"Passion?" Kowalski got to his feet and limped to the evil cat, glaring at him. "Friendship? Something you clearly never had. Our friend could be dying thanks to you!"

The cat shrugged. "Whatever," he muttered. He looked down at Skipper. "Why do you even want to save this island? These creatures are so annoying!"

For a moment Skipper could almost forget that Dark was evil. He agreed with the cat that the lemurs were annoying. Then he reminded himself that annoying or not, he had to try to save them and give them back their peaceful home.

Before he could say anything, Julien can storming over and looked the cat directly in the eyes, as if he forgot to be scared of him. "Hey, we are _not _annoying!"

Suddenly Mort ran for the king's feet and wrapped his body around them. Julien sighed and kicked him off. He cleared his throat, turning back to the cat, who Skipper saw had a look on his face that said 'I told you so'. "Uh he's the only annoying one," the king said.

The cat rolled his eyes and turned back to Skipper. "Tell you what," he growled. "If you can beat me in a one on one fight, I'll leave Madagascar and never return. Sound fair?"

Slowly Skipper nodded. "And if _you _win?"

"You and all the other penguins have to leave," Dark started," but the lemurs, including the king, stays here with me." He showed his teeth and Skipper heard a gasps from one of the lemurs, but he wasn't sure who it was.

"Skipper," Kowalski whispered to him," are you sure you should do this?"

The lead penguin thought about it for a few moments. Then he finally nodded. "Okay," he said out loud. "It's a deal. When do we fight?"

"Tomorrow at noon," the cat growled. "Until then I keep the king."

Skipper shook his head. "No way. How do I know you won't kill him?" Julien gulped when Skipper asked this.

Dark narrowed his eyes. "How do I know you won't try to run off before then?"

The two animals glared at each other for a long time, til finally a dark gray-and-white she-cat stepped in between them. "Let me go with them, Dark," she offered. "I'll keep an eye on the lemurs and penguins, especially that one." She pointed her tail to Victoria, and Dark glared at the female penguin. Then he nodded.

"Very well." Turning back to Skipper, he meowed," Holly will go with you. She will tell me everything so you better not do anything you shouldn't." And with that the cat spun around and disappeared into the tress, his cats running after him.

Sighing Skipper looked down at Private. He felt relief to see that most of the bleeding had stopped and he was even more thankful when Alex came rushing back with more cobwebs. When he pressed them against his side, Skipper ordered Rico to pick up Private and everyone started moving toward the beach, including the cat called Holly. Skipper threw one last glance at the trees, not wanting to think about what might happen tomorrow.

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**Please review! No flames please!**


	15. On The Beach

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats!**

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"He's finally waking up!"

Alex lifted her head when she heard Victoria's voice. She glanced around and saw the penguin standing over the youngest member of Skipper's team. She had kept an eye on him ever since they got back to the beach, while Skipper and the other two discuss their plans, but as soon as Victoria said that, the lead penguin rushed to her side.

Alex stumbled to her feet and joined them, glad to see that Private had stopped bleeding and was now blinking open his eyes. Alex expected her father to comfort the young penguin, but she was surprised when he pushed Victoria away and glared at her.

"Get away from him," he growled. Then he turned back to Private before Victoria could say anything. He got to his knees and gently rub the penguin's head. "How do you feel, young private?"

The young penguin groaned as he tried to move, but Skipper stopped him, shaking his head. "Don't move," he ordered. "You might start bleeding again." The leader gently rubbed his flipper over the leaves that was pressed against Private's side that had big red spots on them from where he was bleeding earlier, but there was no flash blood.

"W-what happened?" Private asked weakly, looking up at his leader with gazed over eyes as if he couldn't focus on him.

"That cat gave you a serious wound," the flat-headed penguin replied. "But don't worry, I'm gonna take care of him tomorrow, and we will give this island back to the lemurs."

"Yes!" Julien ran to the penguins and hugged Skipper, but the leader pushed him off and glared at him.

"I'm not doing it for you, Ringtail," he growled. "And I should just back down now and let you deal with him yourself, but–"He glance down at Private, his eyes suddenly turning hard–"now it's personal!"

Kowalski appeared beside Alex, and she turned to him, seeing that he was still limping. "I still don't think it was a wise idea to make a deal like that with him," he murmured. "You saw what he did. He knocked all three of you off of him, and wounded Private! I think we should just leave!"

As soon as he said that a growl sounded behind everyone, and they all turned to see the dark gray-and-white she-cat that had came back with them crouching down low, growling at them and her tail flicking back and forth. "You made a deal with Dark," she hissed. "If you try to leave before then, I'm gonna have to stop you."

Rico walked to the cat and looked her in the eye as if he wasn't scared of her; Alex watched as they stared each other down, expecting her to jump on him any minute. She was glad when Skipper called the crazy bird back. He turned away from her, and, grumbling under his breath, waddled back to Skipper and Kowalski.

Then Skipper got to his feet and faced Holly. "We aren't going anywhere, cat," he told her. "We are here to save the island and that is what we are gonna to do." He glared down at the cat, and she met his eyes steady.

Victoria walked in between the penguin and cat, pushing them apart. "Just because we are stuck here together doesn't mean we have to fight," she pointed out, but the two turned their glares on her and she sighed as she backed up.

Alex felt sorry for her, but she knew that Skipper would never get along with these cats.

She found her gaze switching over to the lemurs, who had formed a group of their own. She waddled over to them. She wanted to be near her king, even though she knew he probably wouldn't comfort her.

"Do you really think the penguin can beat Dark?" the young ring tail lemur was asking.

"I don't think he can," the black-and-orange one replied, rolling his eyes. "Dark will kill him on the spot and then kill the rest of us."

"Wow, Weasel," murmured Julien. "I didn't know you could be such a downer!"

"He wasn't always like this," the young lemur spoke up again. "I think he's lost hope in saving the island." She frowned as she looked up at the black-and-orange lemur.

Alex was aware that the lemurs didn't realize she was there, but when she was about to leave, Julien looked down at her and said," Oh hello, subject. When did you get there?"

She smiled at him and asked," Do you need anything, my king? Fruit maybe?" She glanced at where she could still see the crates the animals had arrived in a few feet away. "I'm sure there's still some left."

Julien nodded. "How about a mango?"

Alex instantly ran to the crate and looked through the fruits, fear running through her when she couldn't find the fruit her king wanted. Then she smiled when she located the fruit. She was about to go give it Julien, but when she turned around she almost ran into Kowalski. She took a step back and smiled at him, murmuring a greeting.

"What are you doing?" he asked, glancing at the mango.

She lifted the fruit to show it to him. "King Julien was hungry," she explained, and she was glad when understanding lit in his eyes as he step back. He didn't say anything else as she walked across the beach back to the lemurs. She handed the mango to her king, smiling up at him. She tried not to show her discomfort at the three new lemurs staring at her.

"Alex," began Maurice, who was beside her," I'd like you to meet Weasel." He pointed to the black-and-orange lemur; Weasel gave a curt nod as he eyed the female penguin as if he wasn't sure if he should trust her. "And this is Lilian." He turned to the young female ring tail lemur who was standing beside Emily.

Lilian smiled and walked to Alex, sticking out her hand. Alex smiled back and shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you," the lemur said, and Alex murmured an agreement.

Then the male ring tail lemur stepped forward. "I'm Patch," he announced, but before he could say anything else, Julien added," My younger brother."

Alex stared wide eyed at Patch, and then turned to Julien. "You have a brother?" she asked the king. "How come you never mentioned him?"

Julien shrugged. "Never had a reason to," he murmured, as he took a bite out of his mango.

Suddenly Skipper's voice rang out a little away from the group. "We have to get ready for tomorrow."

"How, Skipper?" That was Kowalski.

Alex turned to see her boyfriend and father talking. She waddled over to them, hoping that her king wouldn't need her to do anything else and feeling glad that he let her leave without saying anything. When she got to them, she could see Skipper was thinking hard about what the tall penguin just said.

"We know Dark can fight," Skipper murmured. "He has claws and teeth." He paused for a long moment before adding," He obviously isn't afraid to kill so I have to be careful about that."

What her father said suddenly got to her thinking and she realize just what tomorrow could bring. Her father could die, and her king and the other lemurs would need to stay here with Dark, probably soon being killed. She gulped, hoping her father could beat Dark and run him out of Madagascar for good.

She glanced up and saw that the sun was slowly going down. She fought against a yawn, not wanting to go to sleep knowing there's a bunch of cats in the woods that could be watching her.

"You should get some rest," Kowalski told her, looking down at her, but he must have saw the uneasy look in her eyes, for he looked up at Skipper and asked," Should we take turns in keeping watch?"

The leader nodded. "I'll take first watch."

But Kowalski was shaking his head. "No. You have to face Dark tomorrow, so you have to get as much rest as you can get. I'll take the first watch."

Skipper looked like he wanted to argue, but then he sighed and nodded.

Alex yawned again and walked over to the crate, laying beside it and closing her eyes. As she drifted into sleep she hoped tomorrow won't be the last time she saw her father alive.

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**Please review! No flames please!**


	16. The Showdown on Madagascar

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats!**

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_I can't believe I'm doing this! _Skipper thought as he looked around the clearing. He felt sick to his stomach when the smell touched his nose: Rotting fruit, decaying bodies, and blood. He couldn't help but remember the last time he was here when Julien was still king of the island. Then there was lights, music, and dancing. He glanced around, and he couldn't believe that he was missing those times.

Now the clearing was dark, and he could see a shadow move on the rocks. He knew the evil cat leader was out there, but he wasn't showing himself for some reason.

Skipper wondered why he was here, risking his own life to save a bunch of lemurs. He hated Julien and his subjects, yet here he was, waiting for the dark cat to appear and for them to start fighting. He continued to watch the shadow through narrow eyes, silently cussing him for everything he's done to this island. But Skipper knew exactly why he was here.

Before the Dark had attacked Private, he wasn't sure if he wanted to take on such an enemy. He had never faced someone so evil and murderous, but after the cat had wounded the young penguin, Skipper knew he had to do something to bring in end to Dark's treacherous deeds. Realizing that he was doing this for Private and not for the lemurs made Skipper feel for better, and he looked forward to facing Dark.

It was a few moments until finally the leaves parted and the massive black-and-gray tom stepped out into the clearing, glaring at the penguin in front of him. Skipper eyed the cat as he stalked toward him, coming to a halt in front of the lead penguin.

"I'm kind of surprised you showed up," the cat growled as he crouched down as if he was getting ready to jump on Skipper.

That didn't might the penguin back down though. He keep telling himself that this was for Private. He had to do this to get revenge for what Dark did to him yesterday!

"We made a deal," Skipper remained him. "I never go back on promises."

Dark started circling the penguin, and Skipper moved as well, not wanting to turn his back on this cat. He knew that was what he wanted. As soon as he had his back on him, he'd jump on him and the fight would be over before it even began, but Skipper wasn't gonna let that happen.

"Where are the others?" Dark asked, keeping his eyes on Skipper.

"Back on the beach," Skipper replied simply. He didn't need to tell this cat that he had told them to stay there just in case the worse did happen. He kept a close eye on Dark as they circled each other.

Dark growled," Enough talking!" And with that, the dark cat crouched down and launched himself at the penguin. Skipper widen his eyes and ducked, dodging the cat before he could sink his teeth in him. He slid to the side and jumped on the cat's back, pinning him down on his stomach as he kicked his head and threw punches.

Hissing and spatting, the cat arched his back, tossing the penguin off him and Skipper flew across the clearing. As soon as the leader landed on his feet, he spun around to face the cat again and was greeted with Dark running to him. He jumped in the air, doing flips to avoid to snapping jaws, but pain shot through him when the cat's teeth met his foot.

Screaming, Skipper fell to the ground, his foot still in Dark's mouth as the evil cat glared down at him. He shook his head and let the penguin go flying across the clearing once more. Skipper landed in a bush.

He lifted his aching head, but he knew he couldn't stop and rest. He quickly jumped to his feet, ignoring the pain as he dodge out of the way just as Dark came running over to him. He skid to a halt and jumped on his back again, throwing kicks and punches. He was pleased to hear the cat meow in agony and he felt the wet stickiness of blood pouring out of Dark's face.

The cat pushed Skipper off of him, and the penguin turned back to face him just in time to see him shaking the blood from his face. Anger was in the Dark's eyes as he glared at the penguin, and for long moments the two animals just stared at each other. Skipper braced himself for the next move the cat will make, ignoring the sharp pain that was piecing his body through his foot. He could barely put it on the ground, but he tried to hide this weakness from his enemy.

Then Dark attacked again, this time pinning Skipper down before he could jump out of the way. The cat stared down at him, glaring at him and growling. He bent down, his teeth bared. Skipper braced himself for the cat to sink his teeth into him, but suddenly the weight vanished off of Skipper.

Confused, Skipper looked up and saw Kowalski standing over him, offering him a flipper. The leader waved it away though as he stumbled to his feet, grunting with pain. He glared at the tall penguin.

"What the hell do you think you are doing here?" he demanded, but he didn't have time to say anything else. Dark was standing behind them, growling and spitting.

"This is suppose to be one on one battle!" Dark bared his teeth at Kowalski, before launching himself at the tall penguin. Kowalski let out a scream as the cat sink his claws into him.

Instantly Skipper jumped on Dark, pulling the cat off of his teammate and punching him. He was glad when Kowalski was beside him, seeming to not care about the blood coming out of his sides, but Skipper could still see that he was limping pretty bad. The leader tried to focus on taking the evil cat down, glad to see that between the two of them he was having trouble dodging the blows. More and more blood oozed out of Dark's wounds as the penguins attacked him, until finally the cat let out a yowl, and manged to knock Skipper and Kowalski away from him with a mighty kick.

Skipper got to his feet and turned to see Dark shakily standing up, shaking his head and spraying blood on the ground.

"You cheated," the cat growled. "I said a one on one battle."

The lead penguin took a step forward. He was just as mad as Dark was that Kowalski joined in on the battle, even though he did save his life. "Never mind that," he growled back. "We won, so you must leave."

"Won?" Dark echoed mockingly. "Who said anything about you winning? You cheated, so you must pay." He lifted his tail and the leaves parted as many cats padded into the clearing. He let out a gasps when he saw a few lemurs join the cats.

_Had some lemurs turn rogue?_

Skipper and Kowalski moved closer to each other. "How do you plan on getting us out of this one, Skipper?" Kowalski asked.

Before Skipper could reply, a call from the forest made the two look in that direction. Skipper was surprised to see Rico, Julien, his subjects, and the four new lemurs: Emily, Weasel, Lilian, and Patch. They all ran to Skipper and Kowalski's side, all getting into fighting positions. Skipper almost couldn't believe his eyes. Then he looked around and noticed he couldn't see his daughter.

"Where's Alex?" he asked, turning to Julien, who was beside him.

"Back on the beach with the cute penguin," replied the king. "I had suggested it'd be best she'd stay and keep an eye on him." There was something in his eyes that Skipper couldn't read, but he didn't really care; he was just glad that his daughter was safe.

"Thanks," he murmured as he looked around at the cats and rogue lemurs, but he didn't have time to say anything else as a cat jumped toward him. He ducked to avoid him, only to come face to face with another cat. He threw punches, but pain shot through him as a cat sink his teeth into him.

He kicked the cat away and looked around, noticing the others were having just as much trouble as he was. He thought maybe this was really the end, until a yowl echoed throughout the clearing and everyone frozed.

Skipper looked up to see a small group of cats walking toward Dark, a black-and-white tom in the led. He came to a halt in front of his leader, and he looked up at him, his flicking tail the only thing that betrayed his nervousness.

"Badger," the leader growled as he eyed the young cat," what is the meaning of this?" He stared past him at the other cats that was standing together as they faced the evil cat.

The black-and-white tom took a deep breath. "We've been talking, Dark," he announced as he stared up at the much bigger cat. "We don't think we should be here. We think we should go and give the island back to these lemurs." He flicked his tail to Julien and the other lemurs.

Before Dark could say anything, a dark brown tabby stepped forward. "Step down, Badger," she hissed.

The small cat spun around and glared at the tabby. "No," he growled, sinking his claws into the earth. "Think, Ebony! What we are doing here is not good. It's not helping anyone. Because of us lemurs have died!" He stared wide eyed at the cats around him as if the thought of everything they've done just dawned on him and he couldn't take it anymore.

"Yeah," Skipper heard the black-and-orange lemur murmured. "Including my parents..."

Skipper glanced at the lemur, and felt unexpected sympathy for him. Then he turned back to listen what the cat had to say next.

"Why do we do it?" the small black-and-white tom demanded, glaring at his leader.

Dark just stared at the cat, but he didn't reply.

One of the cats behind Badge, a black she-cat, took a step forward. "Yes, Dark," she meowed. "Why do we have to torment these creatures? Why do we have to torment any creature who aren't able to protect themselves?"

Dark opened his mouth to reply, but another cat stepped forward and added," I don't understand why we can't just live life without killing."

Skipper glanced around and saw that the older cats were listening to the younger ones with deep interest in their eyes.

"We could hunt," Badger explained. "Train our young, and protect our territory only if someone threatens it, not go looking for trouble. We can be a real Clan, instead of a bunch of rouges."

As soon as the young cat said the last sentence, a bunch of cats hissed and growled. Skipper thought they were about to jump on him, but he was surprised when the dark brown tabby, Ebony, took a step forward and meowed," You know, Dark, that does sound pretty nice."

Dark glanced around his cats, his icy-blue gaze scanning their faces. "Is that what you all really want?"

Skipper found himself glancing around the cats, almost forgetting that moments ago that they were about to kill him and his friends. He could see the cats glancing at each other as if they were uncertain at first. Finally murmurs of agreement started up, getting louder as they talked amongst themselves about being in a real Clan, hunting and patrolling and training.

However, Skipper wasn't convinced that a group of evil cats could just turn good just like that. He eyed them suspiciously as Dark straightened up and spoke to all his cats. "Very well. If that's what you all want. We will go and find a territory somewhere else."

Skipper noticed Lilian and Emily glance at each other, and he was surprised when Emily whispered something to Julien. The king turned wide eyes at the female lemur.

"What?" he exclaimed, folding his arms on his chest. "No way! Not after what they did!"

"But they've change," Emily protested. "And they are looking for new territory."

"How do you know they won't take over again?" Maurice spoke up, whispering so the cats won't hear.

Emily looked around at the cats. "They look like they just want a happy life," she told them, turning back to the king and his adviser. "I'm gonna ask them."

Skipper watched with surprised as the female lemur walked over to Dark, expecting one of the cats to attack her, but they just stepped back. He even noticed a few of them murmured an apology.

_Maybe they really had change? _Then he snorted and added in his head, _And I'm gonna start flying!_

"Dark?" Emily asked as she stopped in front of the dark cat.

The cat looked down at her. "Yeah?"

The lemur suddenly looked scared, but she stood her ground. "You can make your territory here if you want. The island is big enough."

Dark stared down at her. "Really? After everything we've done to you?"

Emily swallowed and shifted her feet. "You seem to change from your dark ways," she murmured. "I don't know what a Clan is, but we promise to not enter your territory and leave you in peace if you'd do the same to us."

Dark continued to look at her for a long moment, until he dipped his head. "Thank you," he finally said.

Skipper watched the cat and lemur, thinking, _I hope you're right to trust this cat, Emily._

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**Please review! No flames please!**


	17. Getting Ready to Leave

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats!**

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Alex sat on the beach beside Victoria. She watched as the older penguin kept an eye on Private. Victoria had explained that even though the young penguin had awoke, they still need to make sure he didn't go into shock. She looked closer to Private, and saw that he was staring at the water with huge eyes as if he was lost in thought. Was he thinking about Skipper and the others?

_I tried to beg Kowalski and my king not to follow Skipper, but of course they didn't listen to me!_

She sighed as she thought about what could be happening in the forest at that moment. Alex glanced over her shoulder at the trees, and couldn't help but imagine that she'll never see her father or boyfriend or king ever again. She felt like crying at the thought, but she forced back the tears.

"I'm sure they will be fine."

Alex jumped at the sound of Victoria's voice. She glanced up at the penguin. She wished she could share her confidence, but there was a voice nagging in her head saying that she'll never see her friends alive again.

Alex nodded, but didn't reply to the penguin. She still felt like something was off about her. She waddled over to Private and sat down next to him. "Do you think we will see Skipper and the others again?" she whispered.

Private turned to her in surprised. Then he looked at the water again. "I think we will."

She couldn't stop herself from glancing down at the leaves wrapped around the young penguin's body. She was glad to see that he hadn't started bleeding again, and lifted her gaze before Private realize she was looking at his dressings.

She opened her beak to say anything, but just then the sound of many animals coming through the bushes distracted her. She jumped to her feet and turned just in time to see her father coming out of the forest. Alex ran to him, coming to a halt when she saw that he was bleeding from his foot and he had several scratches on his body.

_But at least he's alive!_

"Dad!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad to see you!" She hugged him, but she pulled back when he winced.

She looked past him, and saw Kowalski and Rico push out of the bushes, joining their leader. Then the lemurs walked out. Alex turned to her father and asked," So you beat Dark?"

Skipper rubbed the back of his head. "Not exactly," he murmured.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

Before the leader could speak, the leaves parted again, and Alex was surprised to see the black-and-gray tom come out of the forest. She got into a fight position, ready to fight off Dark if he attacked, but Skipper held out his flipper and shook his head.

"What?" she exclaimed. "But he's evil!"

"Not anymore, apparently," Skipper murmured, turning to Dark. "The cats have decided to stay on the island and find a territory far away from the lemurs so they don't bother each other."

Alex stared wide eyed at her father, wondering what happened in the clearing. She grabbed her father's flipper and dragged him away. "Do you really think we can trust them?" she demanded.

"No," he admitted. "But Emily thinks we can, and I really don't care. I'm so ready to get home." He sighed and turned to Dark. "You are gonna keep your promise and stick to your territory on the other side of the island, right?"

Dark dipped his head, but Alex noticed that he glared at the penguin. "The lemurs need to stay off our territory, too."

"Like we'd want to go on your side anyways," Weasel muttered, rolling his eyes.

Dark glared once more at the penguins and lemurs, before disappearing into the forest.

Skipper called after him," If we hear that you are torturing these lemurs again, we will be back and next time we won't go easy on you!"

Kowalski was staring at him. "Really?"

Skipper sighed, suddenly seeming tired. "I just want him to know we mean business," he explained," so we _don't _have to come back."

"I hope so," the tall penguin murmured. Then he limped to Alex and asked," Are you okay?"

She nodded. "But are _you _okay?"

He rubbed the back of his head. "I'll be fine," he assured her. "I'm just ready to get home." He turned to Skipper. "How are we going to get home?"

The leader thought for a moment. "Can you think of any options?"

Kowalski shrugged, before turning to Emily. "How did you get to New York?"

"I built a boat," she replied.

"We could do that," Kowalski told his leader as he turned back to Skipper, who was nodding thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that could work." He turned to all the animals around him. "Come on, let's get to work."

Alex started looking around, wondering what they could used to build a boat. Then she heard her boyfriend naming off stuff like leaves and logs and other stuff in the forest. She was about to join her father, his team, and Victoria as they went to gather the stuff they needed, but she stopped as she pasted the lemurs, who were all gathered and talking.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay?" Patch was asking his brother.

Julien seemed to think for a moment, before nodding. "Yes, I'm sure. I love living in New York. I miss living here," he added as if he saw the disappointed in Patch's eyes. "But my home is at the Central Park Zoo now."

The ring tail lemur nodded at what his brother said. "I understand. I'll try to keep your subjects safe."

Julien smiled down at his brother and shook his head. "No, Patch," he said. "They are _your_ subjects now."

Patch just stared at the king for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you are the new king of Madagascar, Patch." Julien ran to the forest and then came back with a coconut that had leaves on it. He placed it on his brother's head. "It's the best I could do in short notice, but–"He looked around at the other lemurs, who was all staring at the king with wide eyes and waiting for him to finish–"All hail King Patch!"

"All hail King Patch!" the other lemurs joined in, and Lilian was jumping up and down as she cheered for the newly named king.

Alex smiled and called out," All hail King Patch!"

The lemurs turned to her in surprised, and she shut her beak, but she started laughing when she saw Julien smile at her.

"Thank you," Patch murmured, glancing at his friends.

Emily took a step toward King Julien and asked unexpectedly," Can I come back to New York with you?"

Julien looked down at her with wide eyes. "A-Are you sure you'd want to?" he stammered.

The female lemur nodded. "Yes," she replied, reaching out and grabbing his hand.

He smiled at her.

Alex was distracted by the lemurs when she saw her father and Kowalski dragging a log by. She followed them, wanting to help and get home as soon as possible. She glanced over her shoulder to see Emily leaning against Julien as he held her tight. She turned back to catch up with the other penguins, hoping they'd be able to leave this island soon.

_But is it really a good idea to leave the cats here with the lemurs?_

Sighing, she knew she had to just trust in Emily's judgment.

_We came here to gave the island back to the lemurs, _she thought as she helped Kowalski and Skipper push the log close to the water. _Mission completed so now we can focus on going home._

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**This is the last chapter, but there's gonna be an ****Epilogue!**

**Also, I know you might wonder if Dark can keep his promise or what, so I made a short story a few chapters long that I'm gonna post that shows if Dark will keep his promise! :)**


	18. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters! I only own Alex, her mother Daisy (who is only mentioned a few times in this story; she does not make an appearance), Victoria, Emily, Weasel, Lilian, Patch, Elizabeth, Dark, and all his cats! Also in this chapter, I own Sam and Ethan! :)**

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It was a sunny day in New York City, and it was after zoo hours, so the animals were free to do whatever they wanted to do. The penguins were in their HQ: Kowalski and Alex was in the lab working on some new invention; Private and Rico was playing cards; but Skipper had more important things to do. He stared down at the young penguin in front of him, watching as she waddled over to him. She stumbled a little, and the very proud penguin couldn't help but giggle at her, but he reached out his flipper to catch her when she started to fall.

He was startled when he heard footsteps behind him, but he relaxed when he realized it was only Private, apparently abandoning his card game with Rico. Skipper brought the very young penguin to his chest as he stared up at the private.

"She's beautiful, Skippah," he murmured, sitting down beside him. He seemed to think about what he wanted to say next before adding hesitantly," Victoria was dumb for leaving."

Skipper sighed and looked down at his daughter. "I regret whatever I had with Victoria, but I don't regret this little bundle of joy." He lifted the young penguin and smiled at her. "Isn't that right, Sam?"

She smiled back and giggled as she waved her flippers widely. "Yep! Yep!"

But Skipper knew that she didn't understand at all. He gently let his daughter down again and watched as she ran across the lair.

"I still don't fully understand how you two got together in the first place," Private confessed, turning to his leader. "I don't you hated her and didn't trust her."

Skipper sighed, knowing that he couldn't tell him that for a short while that he had learned to like Victoria when they got back from Madagascar. They had formed something of a relationship and then Sam happened, but not long after Sam was hatched, Victoria had told Skipper that she had to leave. She never told him why exactly, only that she doesn't like staying in one place for too long. They got into a big fight, which ended with Victoria being shipped to another zoo and leaving Skipper with Sam.

But Skipper didn't mind having his daughter. He just wished Victoria would have gave him a good reason for just leaving.

He then realize that Private was still looking at him, clearing waiting for an answer. "It's complicated," he murmured, getting to his feet and walking over to where his daughter was looking up at Kowalski's lab door. He laughed and told her," That's off limits."

She just stared up him, and, smiling, he gently nudged her away from the door. He watched as she stumbled to Rico, who was still sitting at the table, but he got up and looked down at Sam as she walked up.

"You're a good father." Private's voice made Skipper jump, and he turned to see the penguin beside him.

"I may not have been there for Alex," Skipper said as he watched Rico stare down at Sam as if he had no idea what to do with her. "But I will be there for Sam when she's growing up."

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"Maurice!" The king waited impatiently for his adviser to struggle up the platform. He crossed his arms and leaned sideways a little until finally the aye-aye stood panting beside him.

"Y-Yes, Your Majesty?" Maurice asked, trying to get his breath back.

Julien looked down at him, smirking a little. "Oh nothing," he murmured. "I just wanted to show Ethan how to get you to come running if he ever wanted anything." He turned to looked at the smaller throne next to his own bigger chair. On the throne sat a young ring tail lemur who looked up at his father with wide eyes.

The young prince started laughing, cheering," Again! Again!"

Maurice sighed and walked over to the young lemur, petting his head and smiling at him. Before he could say anything though, Emily appeared and walked over to the other lemurs, calling a greetings.

"Oh! My beautiful queen," Julien greeted her, kissing her on the cheek. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Emily replied, but there was something in her eyes that told Julien that she wasn't, but before he ask her what was wrong, she turned to their son and picked him up, hugging him. "Come on, Ethan. It's time to eat."

Julien watched Emily carry the young lemur away. He felt like something was on Emily's mind, but why wouldn't she tell him? She usually told him everything. He sighed and turned away, but when he took a step he tripped over something. He looked to see what had tripped him, and anger pulsed through him when he saw Mort.

"Hey!" the mouse lemur said with a smile on his face.

The king got back to his feet and kicked Mort to the other side of the habitat, murmuring," Man, he's so annoying!"

Then he spotted Emily on the ground feeding their son smashed fruit. He stared at her for a while before noticing the sad look on her face. Julien jumped down to joined them and he asked," Is something wrong, my queen?"

Emily jumped in surprised before turning to Julien. "Uh no," she said quickly. "Nothing's wrong."

"Don't lie to me." Julien looked her up and down. "Maurice!" he called and his adviser appeared within moments.

"Is this another false alarm to show Ethan?" the aye-aye asked.

Julien shook his head. He gently took Ethan from Emily, along with his food. He handed the kid and the fruit to Maurice. "Fed Ethan and watch him while I talk to Emily alone," he ordered his adviser. He watched as Maurice nodded and walked off with Ethan.

When Julien turned back to Emily, he saw her looking at him with big, sad eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, she blurted out," I want to go back to Madagascar."

The king stared wide eyes at the lemur he loved more than anything. "B-But why?" he stammered.

"I really miss it there," she murmured. "When I left, I never imagined I'll miss it so much. I miss my friends, and I kinda want to go back." She shifted her feet on the ground and sighed.

"W-What about Ethan?"

"I'm sure you can take care of him. You'll be a wonderful father." She took a step toward forward, hugging him.

Julien didn't do anything for a moment, until finally he put his arms around her, drinking in her lovely scent and loving the feel of her fur on his body. He's gonna miss her touch when she's gone and hearing her voice. When he left the first time, he thought he'd never see her again, and when he did he was so happy, but now he felt like his heart was breaking again. He knew he couldn't make her stay though; if she wanted to go back to Madagascar, there was nothing he could do to stop her.

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The king sat on his throne, staring up at the sky. He glancing down at the sound of laughter. He felt a smile form on his face as he look down at his son. Julien jumped of his throne and picked up Ethan.

"I'll always love your mommy," he told the young lemur, who stared at him with huge eyes. "She'll always have a place in my heart, even if she's far, far away."

He knew he should be with his queen in the shipping and receiving area of the zoo, where the penguins were helping Emily getting ready to ship back to Madagascar. After their talk, Julien and Emily had went to the penguins and asked for their help. They decided to get it done as soon as possible so Alice could go ahead and ship the lemur today before she left; Kowalski had explained that the zookeeper was staying after zoo hours, but he wasn't sure for how long, so they had to hurry.

Julien wanted to be with his beloved, but the thought of her leaving still hurt his heart. Sighing, he looked at Ethan and asked," Do you want to say goodbye to mommy?"

Ethan blinked at him. "Mommy?" he asked, putting his head to one side.

Julien wanted to cry when he thought about Emily leaving, but he had to force back the tears as he murmured," Let's go see mommy one last time."

He held on tight to Ethan as he jumped over to the wall and then to the ground. He slowly walked to shipping and receiving area of the zoo, not really looking forward to saying goodbye to the only lemur he's ever loved.

When he finally got there, he saw the penguins were talking, where Emily was standing beside Maurice and Mort. Then he realize that Skipper had brought his daughter, Sam. He hadn't met her himself, and he really didn't care about meeting her.

He gently put Ethan down and watched as he ran to go explore. He called out to him to be careful. Everyone looked up at the sound of his voice, and Emily came running over, throwing her arms around him. "I'm so glad you came!" she said, smiling up at him. "I was afraid you were gonna let me leave without a proper goodbye."

"Why would I do that, my queen?" Julien smiled at her and kissed her. "I couldn't let you go without saying goodbye."

Emily smiled at him, but before she could say anything, Julien heard Skipper yell," Sam get away from that lemur!"

Julien spun around to see his son staring at the young penguin with wide eyes. Skipper was towering over them, reaching for his daughter and dragging her away. Anger pulsed through him as he stormed over there, glaring at the lead penguin as he treated his son like he had a disease. Instead of saying anything to Skipper though, Julien picked up Ethan and walked over to Emily again, murmuring under his breath about how annoying the penguins are.

"Are you okay, Ethan?" the king asked his son and looked him over. Ethan just stared at him as if he didn't understand.

"You keep your son away from my daughter, Ringtail!" Skipper told him as he gently handed Sam to her older half sister Alex. "I don't want her getting some kind of deranged lemur disease!"

Julien glared at the penguin, pressing Ethan to Emily. "You keep _that_ penguin away from my son!" he ordered, pointing to Sam. The two animals glared at each other for a long moment, until Private called out," Alice!"

All the animals looked up to see the zookeeper heading toward the shipping and receiving area.

"Quick, Emily!" Kowalski said, pointing to the crate.

Emily nodded and gave their son back to Julien, kissing the king on the cheek. "I love you," she whispered in his ear before jumping into the box. Rico closed the crate, and all the animals went into hiding. Skipper grabbed his youngest daughter before he ran behind a box.

Julien watched as Alice walked in the area, stopping when she spotted the box. She looked at it and glanced at the label, before shrugging and bending over to pick up the crate. She stumble a little at first, but she manged to carry the box out of the area. Julien stared after her, feeling his son pulling on his arm as if he wanted to see what was going on.

As Alice disappeared from sight, Julien thought, _I love you, Emily, and I always will._

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**Please review! No flames please!**

**The End!**


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